Simon Kuper's Book Recommendations (Updated for 2026)

1

Fever Pitch

Nick Hornby

4.0

The Twentieth Anniversary Edition

*WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR*

Fever Pitch is Nick Hornby's million-copy-selling, award-winnning football classic

'A spanking 7-0 away win of a football book. . . inventive, honest, funny, heroic, charming' Independent

For many people watching football is mere entertainment, to some it's more like a ritual; but to others, its highs and lows pro

Recommended by David Baddiel, David Papineau, and Simon Kuper.

Simon Kuper

Nick Hornby doesn’t revel in, ‘Oh I’m such a football geek, isn’t that funny?’ He treats it as something suspect. [source]

David Baddiel

In about 1990 there was this sea change in the way people expressed themselves about football – more emotionally. Nick’s book sets the stall out for that. [source]

David Papineau

Sporting fandom is very interesting philosophically: it’s a case of partiality, partisanship, valuing something when you can see that what you value isn’t going to be valued by other people. [source]

Cover unavailable

2

One Night in Turin: The Inside Story of a World Cup that Changed our Footballing Nation Forever

Pete Davies

4.4

The memoir behind the documentary One Night in Turin, the inside story of a World Cup that changed our footballing nation forever

It was the World Cup semi-finals. On 4th July, 1990, in a stadium in Turin, Gazza cried, England lost and football changed forever.

This is the inside story of Italia '90 - we meet the players, the hooligans, the agents, the journalists, the fans. Writer Pete Davies was

Recommended by David Baddiel and Simon Kuper.

Simon Kuper

It’s gripping and it’s written in a very sort of populist, laddish style, but it works. The characters make it work, and the setting of Italy during the World Cup. It doesn’t matter that that World Cup is now history. [source]

David Baddiel

The cover is Gazza crying, which is now rather clichéd, but then it was an icon of the change in attitude towards football and men, and how emotional they can be about football. [source]

3

Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer

David Winner

4.2

If any one thing, Brilliant Orange is about Dutch space and a people whose unique conception of it has led to the most enduring arts, the weirdest architecture, and a bizarrely cerebral form of soccer—Total Football—that led in 1974 to a World Cup finals match with arch-rival Germany, and more recently to a devastating loss against Spain in 2010. With its intricacy and oddity, it continues to myst

Recommended by Simon Kuper.

Simon Kuper

This is about Holland and Dutch football and what makes it special. I grew up in Holland, so I have a particular tie to this book. Actually I was in Amsterdam the winter that David Winner was there writing his book. We were both writing books and we’d occasionally meet for dinner. And I got to know David and I really liked him, but I thought ‘Poor old David, he’s going to write a book about Dutch football, and nobody’s going to read it.’ Also I grew up in Holland, and I thought, there’s nothing he can tell me about Dutch football, it’s all going to be old hat or he won’t get it right. But he gave the book to me in manuscript and I read it, and when I finished it, I just wanted to break out into applause. He did it beautifully. It’s completely original. David is a film buff so it has all these film references and it’s just very surprising. He interviews architects and rabbis about what makes Dutch football special. It’s not like other football books – he approaches football through architecture and space and landscape and painting, and it’s absurd, but it works. [source]

4

Only a Game?: The Diary of a Professional Footballer

Eamon Dunphy

4.1

The 40th anniversary edition of the classic inside account of a season at a professional football club

"The best book about football I have read by someone who has actually played the game...everyone who has ever dreamt of a sporting career should read it" - Nick Hornby

The season began so well for the Republic of Ireland international midfielder Eamon Dunphy at Millwall - and ended in disillusionme

Recommended by Simon Kuper.

Simon Kuper

This is a cult book among those of us who like reading about football. It came out in the 1970s when really no one was publishing books about football. Eamon Dunphy was a very run-of-the-mill professional footballer in London, playing for Millwall, of Irish origin. And he sat down with a journalist to write this book about what it’s really like to be a footballer: The daily life, the grind, the stress, the frustrations with your team-mates, with the manager, the worries about money. At some point Millwall say, ‘OK, we’ve had it with you, we’re going to sell you!’ and he comes home to his house, and even his house belongs to the club. And he thinks, ‘What am I going to do? I’m 28 years old, I don’t own my own house, I’ve got another couple of years left and then it’s all over.’ [source]

5

Goalkeepers are Different

Brian Glanville

4.0

Recommended by Alexander and Simon Kuper.

Simon Kuper

This is again a bit of a cult book. Brian Glanville is the legendary football journalist, he’s been doing it for, I think, 60 years – his age is never clear to me, but he must be in his late seventies now. He ghosted the autobiography of a famous pre-war footballer when he was 17 and has been in the business ever since. And he’s written wonderful histories – he’s a very, very fine writer and he also wrote some novels, partly about British Jewish families. But Goalkeepers are Different is a novel really for children/young people, about a guy who becomes a professional goalkeeper. Like Dunphy’s book it has some of the bitterness and frustrations and lack of glamour – and it’s just a wonderfully rendered novel. [source]

Alexander

Goalkeepers are Different is my absolute favourite. It’s really good because this player didn’t expect to be a goalie in the first place, but then their goalkeeper got injured at school. So when they next played a school match, he was put in goal. It turns out he was a really good goalie. [source]