With the Euros kicking off in Germany on June 14, we can expect football fever to sweep the country.
In a boon to our home nations, both England and Scotland have qualified this year, and so we have even more reason to be glued to our TVs for a month of coverage.
What about those of us who don’t care too much for football, and grow tired of the association between England fans and the image of some patio furniture being launched into a stream of tear gas somewhere on the continent? Or maybe you’ve never taken the time to explore the beautiful game, understand its quirks and eccentricities, and what it says about modern Britain?
Sure, we love a screamer of a goal and a neat stat about performance, but anyone will tell you that the best books about sport are about more than just sport. Because sport isn’t even about just sport. As well as being about the pursuit of athletic excellence, it’s about passion and politics, rivalry and reverie, ecstasy and, as England and Scotland fans will know too well, agony. Above all, the beginning of any major tournament is about hope, because in football, anything can happen.
Football has the power to transcend boundaries and transform lives, and the best books about it reflect all of the above. Whether you’re brand new to the sport and wanting to figure out how it captures the national consciousness in the way that it does, or a seasoned pro who thinks they know it all, there really is something out there for anyone wanting to take an in-depth look the national game: what we love about it, why it matters, where it needs to do better, and what it says about the world we live in.
Shop the best books about football below
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
The original and the best, Hornby’s seminal classic sets out vividly, emotively and hilariously his obsessive fandom of Arsenal Football Club. The book, which is credited by some as the one that changed the entire genre of football writing, is an autobiographical account charting the highs and lows (of which Hornby would have experienced a few more during the 1970s and 80s) of the club he began supporting as a child, through into adulthood.
It touches on classic football-adjacent themes, such as identity, class, and masculinity, and is as beautifully written as it is funny.
Buy now £3.53, Amazon
A New Formation edited by Calum Jacobs
Editor Calum Jacobs hails from South East London, which is now considered an almost centre of excellence when it comes to producing fresh footballing talent. He compiles a series of essays on the ways in which black footballers have helped to shape the modern game.
Contributors include Musa Okwonga, Janette Kwakye, Aniefiok ‘Neef’ Ekpoudom and more, as well as interviews with Ian Wright, Andrew Cole, and Anita Asante. Using the lens of social and cultural history, the book examines the contributions of the likes of Justin Fashanu, Hope Powell, and Danny Rose, as well as Black British culture on modern football.
Buy now £11.52, Amazon
At The Match by Simon Gill, Colin McPherson and Paul Thompson
From the “half decent” independent football magazine, When Saturday Comes, comes this sumptuous (and I don’t use this word lightly) 240-page photobook, celebrating two decades of images captured by its photographers, Simon Gill, Colin McPherson and Paul Thompson.
Documenting matches from down on the Devon coast as far north as Moray, in Scotland, the artwork shows the best, worst, and most downright ridiculous the football pyramid has to offer. It is the perfect way to celebrate the very heart of football in the UK, its eccentricities, and the people at all ends of it who make it what it is.
Buy now £40.00, When Saturday Comes
A Woman’s Game by Suzanne Wrack
Winner of the Sunday Times Sports Book Awards inaugural Vikki Orvice prize for women’s sports writing, the Guardian writer’s debut book looks at the changing face of women’s football. Starting with its beginnings at the turn of the 20th century, through the FA’s so-called 50-year ban on women’s football, right up to the present day and a professionalised game in England.
Wrack’s book looks at the potential within the women’s game, concluding with a manifesto on how to safeguard it in a time of huge progress, as well as continuing risks to its long-term sustainability.
Buy now £11.67, Amazon
Tinseltown by Ian Herbert
Anyone who’s watched and loved Apple TV’s Ted Lasso, will no doubt be familiar with the story of Welsh club, Wrexham FC. In fairness, the comparisons seem to start and end with an association with the US, a country not known for its excellence when it comes to the men’s game.
That said, a fairytale takeover by Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds has put the club firmly back in the limelight since fans saved it from bankruptcy ten years earlier, securing successive promotions. Herbert’s book, written in cooperation with the club, tells the story.
Buy now £9.00, Amazon
No Longer Naive by Ibrahim Mustapha
Earlier in the year we were gripped by a thrilling Africa Cup of Nations, eventually won by the host nation, Ivory Coast, despite sacking head coach Jean-Louis Gasset in the group stage.
Interest in African football has grown steadily outside of the continent in recent years, and in his book Ibrahim Mustapha takes an in-depth look at the history of African football at the World Cup. Mustapha covers how African teams have played catch-up on the international stage, as well as exploring previously undocumented history, to tell tales of triumph as well as tragedy.
Buy now £10.95, Amazon
Woman Up by Carrie Dunn
One of the most prolific writers about women’s football in the UK, Carrie Dunn has already shed light on the history of the women’s game with her Lionesses trilogy and in her book Unsuitable for Females.
In Woman Up, Dunn turns her attention to the evolution of the game, examining the gender gaps that still exist, including kit, pay, injuries and more. An entertaining and enlightening read, told through meticulous research and first-hand stories of players, coaches, officials and a host of others, integral to the story so far.
Buy now £10.24, Amazon
Nowhere to Run by Jonathan Sayer
Award-winning comedy playwright and screenwriter Jonathan Sayer finds himself, along with his dad, the co-chairman and owner of Greater Manchester-based non-league club, Ashton United FC. In this funny and heartwarming book, Sayer recounts his attempts to keep the club going, as well as ongoing battles with the council and an octogenarian revolt among the fanbase.
Buy now £9.63, Amazon
Your Show by Ashley Hickson-Lovence
Uriah Rennie became the first black referee to officiate games in the Premier League in 1997, and remains one of only two black referees ever to have done so. Your Show, is a fictionalised account written from Rennie’s perspective, by former-English teacher, Hickson-Lovence, with a beautifully poetic quality.
The novel is the story of one man’s ambitions to overcome societal barriers and make it to the top of his game.
Buy now £7.99, Amazon
The Striker and the Clock by Georgia Cloepfil
Set for publication next month, former footballer Georgia Cloepfil offers a unique and fascinating insight into the mind of a professional athlete in this memoir. Written in 90 “minute long” passages, Cloepfil covers the joys of camaraderie, the agony of injury, and what it means to push yourself to your absolute limits in pursuit of what can inevitably only ever be time-limited excellence.
Buy now £21.19, Amazon
The Year Of The Robin by Jen Offord
The writer of this piece accepts accusations of bias, while recommending this (Sunday Times Sports Book Awards nominated, she’ll have you know) book, charting the highs and many, many lows in the year of the life of a Charlton Athletic fan.
Part-memoir, the book covers the club’s 2019/20 season, following promotion to the Championship, after which the author buys season tickets for her and her brother. In an eventful year for the Addicks, including a billionaire takeover gone wrong and Covid putting a temporary end to all fixtures, the book includes interviews with key figures including then manager Lee Bowyer, and star striker Lyle Taylor, and is a warm and funny reflection on football, family, and modern Britain in the round.
Buy now £11.97, Amazon
Verdict
There’s something for everyone in At The Match, including people who don’t like reading or, indeed, football. It captures the unique Britishness of the football pyramid, but also community – which of course is what football is made up of, too. Every page tells its own intriguing story of why we love football, its glorious highs and pitiful lows, from the ridiculous to the sublime, to the extraordinarily mundane, and back again.
