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Steve Bloomfield's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Steve Bloomfield recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Steve Bloomfield's favorite book recommendations of all time.

2

Futebol

The Brazilian football team is one of the modern wonders of the world. Travelling extensively from the coastal cities of Rio de Janiero and Sao Paolo to the Amazon jungle, Bellos shows how Brazil changed football and how football shaped Brazil." less
Recommended by Steve Bloomfield, and 1 others.

Steve BloomfieldIt’s a magical, magical book. I didn’t have much interest in Brazil as a country. (Source)

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3

WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

A poignant and moving account of the author’s search for the man his father was and the life he led as a well-known footballer, blending the personal and the historical into an unforgettable story

Stewart Imlach was an ordinary neighbourhood soccer star of his time.

A brilliant winger who thrilled the crowd on Saturdays, then worked alongside them in the off-season; who represented Scotland in the 1958 World Cup and never received a cap for his efforts; who was Man of...
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Recommended by Dave Cousins, Steve Bloomfield, and 2 others.

Dave CousinsIt harks back to a time before six figure salaries, when players travelled to matches on the same bus as the fans. (Source)

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4
The definitive book about soccer. With a new foreword for the American edition.

There may be no cultural practice more global than soccer. Rites of birth and marriage are infinitely diverse, but the rules of soccer are universal. No world religion can match its geographical scope. The single greatest simultaneous human collective experience is the World Cup final.

In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer's rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world's most popular sport-now poised to fully establish itself in the USA....
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Recommended by John Turnbull, Steve Bloomfield, and 2 others.

John TurnbullIt’s more a work of history and sociology: the game, the matches that are played, are just a way of illustrating the social forces at work. (Source)

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5

Football Against the Enemy

occer is much more than just the most popular game in the world. It is a matter of life and death for millions around the world, an international lingua franca.

Simon Kuper traveled to twenty-two countries to discover the sometimes bizarre effect soccer can have on politics and culture. At the same time he tried to discover what makes different countries play a simple game so differently.

Kuper meets a remarkable variety of fans along the way, from the East Berliner persecuted by the Stasi for supporting his local team, to the Argentine general with his own views on...
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Recommended by John Turnbull, Steve Bloomfield, and 2 others.

John TurnbullThis book was published in the United Kingdom in 1994 and, to me, it’s the most important book on soccer in English. (Source)

Steve BloomfieldFor me that was the first book that really tried to look at football through the political lens. It was just ahead of the 1994 World Cup in the US and it tells you just as much today as it did then. It set the template for a whole genre of using football to explain a whole country. (Source)

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