How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization

The first thing to be said is that the title is rather misleading. Foer doesn't really exlpain quite how "soccer explains the world" - which is understandable was such a grandiose claim seems a little overblown. The blurb of the book also refers to globalisation and its effects on football, an issue that Foer sometimes loses track of. The chapter titles are also rather tiring, each begins, 'How Soccer Explains...' (eg, "How Soccer Explains Islam's Hope"). However, that said the book is well worth reading. The chapter on Serbian fans is particularly informing, showing just how the conflicts in the region express themselves and even had their roots in football and the fans of teams such as Red Star. The Nigeria-Ukrainian connect is also good, showing how trends and fashions in football are quickly made and then jumped on by other clubs. The book is made up of such essays and they are well written. Foer does take a global view, he does not just write about the big European footballing nations, but also the backwaters of Eastern Europe, the Arab states and the US. He shows that those who dismiss football as merely just a game are missing its deep sociological impact and the way in which football represents a tribe, region, nation or people.Foer's major argument - that globalisation has eliminated neither local cultural identities nor violent hatred among fans of rival teams - is clearly explained, though most football fans could have told you the same thing.How Soccer Explains the World is very similar to (some might say derivitive of)Simon Kuper's superb 'Football Against the Enemy'. If you haven't read 'Football Against the Enemy' then read it before you buy this, it is the better book, and it did what Foer has done more than a decade before him. Still, Foer's book is worth picking up, sort of as a companion piece to Kuper's.

Envelope arrived but not the book. Don't know what to do about this

I bought this book primarily because it was written by an American who claims to be a football fanatic. Silly me. I thought an outsider's eyes might add extra insight to the impact that the beautiful game has on cultural values around the world. Sadly, they don't.This book is a series of essays on football culture around the world - from Serbia to Scotland, a quick flirt with Austria, thence to England, Brazil and other points of the compass.Foer seems to take the people he meets at face value and therefore he completely misses the point that most of them work him out the moment they meet him. Other than that flaw his writing reveals that he is an A1 grade intellectual. He writes well and there is also no doubt that he cares about the game.The trouble is that he gives the impression that he watches the game he loves from a cushioned seat, high up in the grandstand of his own living room, surrounded by coke and popcorn.This book has been well received by American critics. Fair enough and it may sell quite well there. That was probably the point of the exercise.But it is another thing altogether to sell Foer's views on football to the fans who have stood on the terraces at real football places such as Leyton Orient or Lecce, Troyes or Getafe. And not just for one game, for season after season as the tradition is handed down from father to son (or daughter), generation upon generation as part of a tribal rite of passage.In that sense it fails miserably because Foer, in common with many Americans, reduces football to a commodity - something to be exploited for commercial, political or religious reasons. Any true football fan knows the religious history behind Rangers & Celtic. Foer brings nothing new to that particular religious debate though he uses football to fan other flames that suit his own religious persuasion.The clue to avoiding this book is one word in the title - 'unlikely'.

As the title clearly announces this book is supposed to show 'how football explains the world'. Yet all it does -- if that even -- is show how recent or not-so-recent events have altered the world of football. From the Rangers/Celtic rivalry to the corrupt Italian clubs and from hooliganism to how football provides a bubble of freedom to those oppressed by a dictatorial government, all the clichés about the game are once again rehashed. Nothing thought-provoking is said, nothing really new is added to the topic. The whole book smacks of "I'm an American but see how much I know about football." Boring.

Enjoyable whether you are familiar with soccer or not. Very interesting perspectives inside societies of countries throughout the world as well as inside sports. Much of what is relayed can be applied to other sports "worlds." Colorful style of writing details that holds attention.

I love this book! It really opens your mind and makes you understand the way the world works. I highly recommend this book to everyone but especially to Political Science students.

will read it again and again

While Franklin Foer is somewhat riding on the coat-tails of Simon Kuper's "Soccer Against the Enemy" (1994), Foer presents the most readable and accessible non-fiction study of the cross-over between football and politics / social behaviors. Instantly readable, Foer goes around the world and looks at several themes of globalization, and how soccer acts as either a mechanism or manifestation of these phenomenons. There is something here both for casual fans - who might want to know the gritty details behind the El Classico rivarly - to hardcore fans (the rise of Shakthar Donetsk's, Ukraine's soccer federation and the Oligarchs was timely written as both Donetsk and the Oligarch-backed president saw large-scale success after the book's publication).If you liked this book, I'd also recommend: Soccer Against the Enemy by Kuper, Africa United by Steve Bloomfield and Soccer Empire by Laurent Dubois.

Das Buch wurde mir empfohlen. Ich bin schon ein Fußballfan und es gab auch ein paar ganz interessante Geschichten - die Welt erklärt das Buch wohl eher nicht - Globalisierung auch nicht, finde ich. Aber es liest sich ganz gut und ist informativ. Nochmal würde ich es wahrscheinlich nicht kaufen...