Amazon.co.uk Review
"1974 was actually very painful to us all," says Dutch psychoanalyst Anna Enquist. "We can't admit to ourselves that something can be so important. But it matters very much. There is still a deep, unresolved trauma about 1974. It's a very living pain, like an unresolved crime."
En Vincent zag het koren
En Einstein het getal
En Zeppelin de Zeppelin
En Johan zag de bal(And Vincent saw the corn
And Einstein the number
And Zeppelin the Zeppelin
And Johan saw the ball)
--Dutch cabaret song
The intellectualisation of football has always foundered on a simple problem--the players. Doing all your most rewarding thinking with your feet seems to dull the philosophical impulse. Unless, of course, you are Dutch. According to legend, Europeans played a moronic, muscular version of the world's game, until Holland proclaimed its vision of total football in the 1974 World Cup, and enlightenment dawned.
In Brilliant Orange--the neurotic genius of Dutch football, journalist David Winner explores his personal fascination with the land that gave the world Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Johan Cruyff--searching for reasons why such a tiny country has produced some of football's most intelligent, enigmatic and unfulfilled teams.
Winter talks with the players, past and present--including Johnny Rep and Ruud Krol from the losing World Cup Final sides of 1974 and 1978--uncovering their personal experience of the public triumphs and disasters. But it is the breadth of his enquiry into what it may mean to be Dutch--reconciling a colonial past with a multi-cultural present; living with the memories of wartime occupation and collaboration; the tensions between a fiercely individualistic, libertarian spirit and the principles of communality--that makes this such an extraordinary and wonderful book. --Alex Hankin
The Times
World Soccer
Observer
Independent on Sunday
Times
World Soccer
observer
Total Football
Product Description
From the Publisher
"Original and unconventional… Fascinating and individualistic, Brilliant Orange beguiles you like a Cruyff turn." The Times
Entertaining… fascinating… his musings are challenging and his writing playful and inventive. More Muhren than Wouters, more Krol thn Reiziger, you might say." Sunday Times
"Ambitious and illuminating." Independent on Sunday
"Brilliant Orange provides a kaleidoscopic examination of ‘the idea of Dutch football’ and the beliefs associated with it… there is something of the mercurial, brio of Dutch Football in Brilliant Orange." Independent
"The Dutch story is a compelling one; and is told here in a beguilingly intelligent style" Daily Express
The Beauty of Brilliant Orange is not only in rekindling fond memories but in examining and explaining the evolution of Dutch football and the personalities that have dominated it. Scotsman
"Brilliant Orange is one of those strangely informative books that will even entertain those who have little interest in either soccer or the Netherlands." Economist
"Captivating… contains insights into the Dutch psyche that go some way to explaining the birth of ‘Totaalvoetbal’" Irish Times
"[An] excellent book" World Soccer
Lavishly written… Brilliant Orange captures your imagination with a real charm… by the end of the book you almost wish you were Dutch. No really!" Total Football
"This thoughtful book brilliantly reflects the culture of total football and the obstinate mavericks who inspired a generation of football fanatics." Publishing News
