A lifelong soccer player and award-winning author shows us how the sport transcends races, ethnicities, cultures, and experiences and brings us all closer together.
Tim Bascom spent half his childhood in Kansas and the other half in East Africa. Living and traveling around the world, the game of soccer proved a constant truth. Through storytelling that effortlessly flows between poignant and funny, sobering and charming, Bascom explores why soccer matters so much in our common, everyday lives, and how this ordinary yet extraordinary game can bring us all a little closer together.
His passionate vision for this most global game leads Bascom to describe how soccer brought him sanity in the middle of a brutal revolution in Ethiopia and how bridging divisions of race and culture was key to success for teams he joined in Chicago and Kansas. From watching Arsenal’s energetic rise in the Premier League to the bravery of a besieged Afghanistan Women’s National Team, and from pickup games in the Midwest and the Middle East, Bascom finds universal truths and deeply human meaning in the beautiful game of soccer.
Table of Contents:
Preface: Hmmm. Should You Read This Book?
1. First Tackle
Did You Know? Historical Origins of the Game
2. On Using One’s Head
3. One for the Ages
Did You Know? How the Ball Evolved
4. Stress, Soccer, and Relief!
5. Up in the Air
Did you Know? How Soccer Got Its Goals
6. Soccer at All Costs?
7. A Toast to the Toughest!
Did You Know? Why Al the Goal-Scoring Hullabaloo?
8. ¿Hablas EspaÑol? ¿Hablas FÚtbol?
9. One Game but Many Points of View
Did you Know? Just How University Is This Game?
10. Offsides! Yankee Fans in a Premier Palace
11. Pride vs. Spirit
Did You Know? Pioneers of Women’s Soccer
12. Why I Can’s Stop Playing
13. Religion vs. Soccer
Did You Know? Even Bob Marley Played!
14. Coaching Chaos
15. Wonder Girl
Did You Know? How Referees Took Charge
16. No Ball? No Problem!
17. Out in the Open
Did You Know? How Indoor Soccer Began
18. A United Nations of Soccer—in Kansas?
19. The Darker Side
Did You Know? A Homeless World Cup
20. Mr. Soccer—Oumar Seck
21. Football to FÚtbol
Did You Know? Why International Games are Called Caps
22. Building Soccer Bridges
23. A Family Affair
Did You Know? War, Soccer, and a Surprising Truce
24. Bishops with Balls
25. Reasons We Watch
Did You Know? Random (but Fun) Facts
26. Camaraderie
27. No Matter What!
Did You Know? Who Outlasted All the Others?
28. The Old Man and the Knee
Acknowledgments
About the Author :
Tim Bascom is the author of two prize-winning memoirs, Chameleon Days and Running to the Fire; two essay collections, The Comfort Trap and Climbing Lessons; a collection of short stories, Continental Drift; and the novel Squatters’ Rites. He is the Executive Director of the Kansas Book Festival.
Review :
"Through a life spent playing soccer, Tim Bascom captures the global and personal nature of the game. He shares experiences from around the world, taking readers from dusty African streets to sweltering Kansas fields. His passion for the game will resonate with anyone who loves sport."—Paul Carr, ESPN & FOX World Cup researcher
"Equal parts touching memoir and fascinating history, The Boundless Game reminds readers of the power of sport to provide connection in an increasingly fragmented world. Through poignant personal vignettes and watershed moments, soccer is presented as a passport that allows even the casual participant the opportunity to fit the globe into the length of a pitch, if only for a short game. From eastern Africa to rural Kansas, soccer enthusiasts and non-sports fans alike will find much to discover in the people, places, and matches Bascom has curated in this book."—Peter Jasso, director of From Football to Futbol
"This warm-hearted set of essays shows how the global game connects worlds from Kansas to Kenya to Korea and beyond. Written with a generous midwestern sensibility, these stories of lived experience reveal how soccer can animate people and places. Reading it makes for a lovely complement, or perhaps even alternative, to the cynical business of modern commercial sport."—Andrew M. Guest, author of Soccer in Mind: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to the Global Game
"Tim Bascom weaves together stories of how soccer can become a transformative pedagogy of human connection across cultures and conflicts. Spanning the globe and different eras, Bascom shows that the beautiful game isn’t just about who we are—it’s about who we could become."—Vasilis Kostakis, author of Beyond the Final Whistle: Soccer for a Better World
" A must-read for those that love soccer, are starting to love soccer, and those still deciding how they view the game."—Bill Murray, author of The World’s Game: A History of Soccer
