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Soccer Men: Profiles of the Rogues, Geniuses, and Neurotics Who Dominate the World's Most Popular Sport [Paperback]

Simon Kuper

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Book Description

13 Sep 2011
Simon Kuper's "New York Times" bestseller "Soccernomics" pioneered a new way of looking at soccer through meticulous empirical analysis and incisive--and witty-- commentary. Kuper now leaves the numbers and data behind to explore the heart and soul of the world's most popular sport in the new, extraordinarily revealing "Soccer Men."

"Soccer Men" goes behind the scenes with soccer's greatest players and coaches. Inquiring into the genius and hubris of the modern game, Kuper details the lives of giants such as Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Jorge Valdano, Lionel Messi, Kaka, and Didier Drogba, describing their upbringings, the soccer cultures they grew up in, the way they play, and the baggage they bring to their relationships at work.

From one of the great sportswriters of our time, "Soccer Men" is a penetrating and surprising anatomy of the figures that define modern soccer.


Frequently Bought Together

Soccer Men: Profiles of the Rogues, Geniuses, and Neurotics Who Dominate the World's Most Popular Sport + The Football Men: Up Close with the Giants of the Modern Game + Soccernomics
Price For All Three: £34.13

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Review

"The Herald" (UK)
"Kuper always listens, but only rarely quotes verbatim. The [athlete] is a subject rather than a talking head. This approach produces an excellent result... his sureness of purpose allows him to devote his energies to producing something regularly insightful and sometimes very, very funny.""FourFourTwo" "Magazine"(UK)
"Hugely enjoyable...Kuper's knowledge of the global game is second only to the vitality of his writing." "The New Yorker," Book Bench Blog
"[S]prightly, skeptical, and vastly informative... Style, in soccer as in prose, is less the product of "personal expression" than of poise, discipline, patience, and infinite care. . . . Watching Messi or Lampard (or any of the players included in ""Soccer Men"") after reading Kuper is a bit like going back to Shakespeare's sonnets after reading Helen Vendler's book on them. He turns us into more alert, more intelligent, more grateful spectators of the beautiful game."

"Mother Jones"
"Kuper's effortless wit and keen sense of irony make "Soccer Men" well worth the read."

Alan Black, "San Francisco Chronicle"
"Simon Kuper's new book, "Soccer Men," gains insight into the personalities of some of soccer's most important players and coaches with a few extras from outside the sport thrown in....Kuper is a rare breed of writer. His international upbringing conditioned his understanding of variety in the world's most popular sport. His soccer networks across national boundaries and his access inside the game are impressive. There is no better anthropologist's eye analyzing the game today."

"Globe and Mail" (Canada)
"Eccentric but vastly enjoyable... Kuper observes, analyzes, takes notes at a press conference, reads the player's autobiography and writes deftly incisive portraits. It's a wise approach; most pro sports players have little to say and it's the doing that makes them interesting, not their explanation of it."

"Library Journal"
"Hot on the excitement over the


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Amazon.com: 3.4 out of 5 stars  16 reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Guaranteed to induce a smile or two 4 Oct 2011
By Paul Allaer - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Simon Kuper, the European football-writer, co-authored one of the best football books ever 2 years ago with "Soccernomics". That book brought never-before seen insights into the game of football (a/k/a "soccer"), and what a joy it was. Now comes Kuper's next book.

Originally published in Europe earlier this year as "The Football Men: Up Close With the Giants of the Modern Game" (383 pages), it now appears on the US market as "Soccer Men: Profiles of the Rogues, Geniuses, and Neurotics Who Dominate the World's Most Popular Sport". It is important to understand that this book is mostly (but not entirely) a collection of previously published columns that Kuper wrote for a variety of publications, including of course the Financial Times for which Kuper was the weekly sports columnist for many years, but also The Observer and some Dutch publications. As an avid reader of the Financial Times I was afraid that I would recognize many of the columns but thankfully this was not the case. Nevertheless, I was somewhat apprehensive about this book. Well, I shouldn't have been.

"The Football Men" brings about 65 "short stories" (averaging about 10 pages per) on the megastars and not-quite-megastars of the game, some even getting more than one profile or story (such as the legendary Johan Cruijff). They are written with a dry, if not wry, sense of humor, and I found myself reading this with a smile on my face most of the time. In a column on Wayne Rooney: "There are two types of British footballer: ugly ones like Rooney, Paul Gascoigne and Nobby Stiles, and pretty ones like Beckham and Michael Owen. The British public usually prefers the ugly ones." Haha! On Lothar Matthaus's rise to stardom: "The transfer of power officially took place on 17 June 1986, in the final minutes of the game against Morocco, when the Germans were given a free kick. Rummenigge was getting ready to take it when Matthaus shoved him aside and scored." Zing! And on and on. Highly recommended for any fan of the beautiful game!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great insight into the influential figures of the beautiful game 13 Nov 2011
By Kyle Rasmussen - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Simon Kuper assembles a wonderful collection of short and typically very insightful articles that he has written in regards to some of the most influential figures in modern soccer. I found each article extremely interesting and fantastically insightful. Soccer Men provides a good look into the personalities and traits of many of the players, coaches and sporting directors that we so often view from afar, giving a glimpse into the real world that these men operate within. I found it an enjoyable, engaging and very quick read which I'm sure that I will revisit sooner rather than later.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Read.. 22 July 2012
By Sesh - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Simon Kuper is one of the best soccer writers on the planet. This book is mostly a collection of his columns; there is some original work in there as well. There is quite a bit of material from his Soccernomics book as well. I found Kuper's profile on the great Johan Cruyff to be particularly interesting. He describes meeting his childhood idol, and the subsequent interactions between them really well. I wish some of the pieces were a bit longer, but given that most of the profiles were written for newspapers and magazines, the length of the profiles are understandable. This is a good book to take on a plane / train journey or for some light reading on a beach. The profiles of the dutch players are quite detailed and interesting considering that Kuper is an expert on Dutch football.

The best thing about Simon Kuper's work is his honesty. He is quite candid about the fact that most athletes give boring interviews, and that it is pointless to spend hours chasing Wayne Rooney for a few lines of "wisdom". The top class athletes are all over-managed by PR firms, and most of they rarely say anything illuminating or interesting. This is all the more reason why Kuper's book is interesting. Kuper is not some star-struck sports writer or a sycophant; he keeps it real.
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