Soccer Against the Enemy

Simon Kuper
June 2006     ISBN: 1560258780

Soccer is much more than just the most popular game in the world. For millions, it is a matter of life and death, 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.

Soccer Against the Enemy introduces the remarkable variety of fans Kuper encountered 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 tactics. It also illuminates the frightening intersection between soccer and politics, particularly in the wake of the attacks of 9-11, where soccer is obsessed over by the likes of Osama bin Laden. The result is one of the world's most acclaimed books on the game, and an astonishing study of soccer and its place in the world.

Simon Kuper has lived (and played and watched soccer) in France, Holland, Germany, the USA and England, and has written on soccer for publications all over the world, including at The New York Times. He now works for the Financial Times. He studied history and German at Oxford University and supports Ajax Amsterdam, but not all that passionately. His book, Soccer Against the Enemy won the William Hill Prize for sports book of the year in Britain. He lives in Paris.