The Global Game: Writers on Soccer

Includes "The Empty Pleasure" by 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature Winner Mario Vargas Llosa The world’s most popular sport, soccer, is also one of the planet’s prevalent cultural expressions, celebrated and debated as an art form, observed with ritual and passion. Thus it has inspired literary efforts of every sort, from every corner of the globe, by women and men. The writings gathered in this volume reflect the universal and infinitely varied ways in which soccer connects with human experience. Poetry and prose from Ted Hughes, Charles Simic, Eduardo Galeano, GÜnter Grass, Giovanna Pollarolo, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Elvis Costello-to name but a few-take us to a dizzying array of cultures and climes. From a patch of ground in Missoula, Montana, to a clearing in a Kosovo forest, from the stadiums of Burma and Iran to the northern lights over Greenland to remotest Sierra Leone, these writers show us soccer’s stars and fans, politics and rituals, as well as the game’s power to encourage resistance, inspire faith, and build community.

Table of Contents:
Preface     Acknowledgments   Note to Readers   Part 1. Space Introduction      1. The Orb        Klaus Rifbjerg 2. The Origins          Eduardo Galeano 3. Hem and Football           Nalinaksha Bhattacharya 4. The Daily Life of Cameroonian Football       Bea Vidacs 5. The Soccer Moms--1996            David Starkey 6. Atiguibas            Julio Ramón Ribeyro 7. Why Eleven of All Numbers? Football between Carnival and Freemasonry       Erik Eggers 8. Klapzuba's Eleven          Eduard Bass 9. Holland, a Country of Clubs            Simon Kuper 10. Readymade       Álvaro Enrigue 11. Soccer Fields, Fort Missoula          Bridget Carson 12. "Get Him a Body Bag!" (A Brief, Enthusiastic Account)         María Graciela Rodríguez Part 2. Improvisation Introduction      13. Young Shoots       Lady Murasaki 14. A Boy Juggling a Soccer Ball          Christopher Merrill 15. Fallen from the Sky       Javier Marías 16. Combing Over History            Stanley Matthews 17. Encomiastic Arts of Our National Gamesmen         Antonio Skármeta 18. The Longest Penalty Ever        Osvaldo Soriano 19. Fretting While the Scarlet Tide Make History            Elvis Costello 20. Streaker Disrupts Iceland vs. Albania       Einar Már Gumundsson 21. Football at Slack       Ted Hughes 22. Dead Radio          Charles Simic 23. Fahrenheit 1976            Rogelio Ramos Signes Part 3. Challenge Introduction      24. Dreaming of Sunday Afternoons         Giovanna Pollarolo 25. A Fine Fla-Flu            Nelson Rodrigues 26. Escaping with the Ball          Luiz Vilela 27. Generals and Fools        Andrew Marshall 28. 1974          Günter Grass 29. End of the World          György Dragomán 30. Not So Much a Religion, More a Way of Life        Ian Jack 31. Kimmel Springs vs. Metula       Ephraim Kishon 32. For the Sake of My Right and Not Football         Anonymous 33. Let the Games Begin       Subcomandante Marcos and Mássimo Moratti Part 4. Loss Introduction      34. On a Painting of Playing Football           Ch'ao Yueh-chih 35. Beauty Is Nothing but the Beginning of a Terror We Can Hardly Bear  000       Uro Zupan 36. Playing Football in Secret            Driton Latifi 37. Why Does My Wife Love Peter Crouch?         Thom Satterlee 38. The Dynamo Team: Legend and Fact            Anatoly Kuznetsov 39. Boycotting the World Cup        Hebe de Bonafini and Matilde Sánchez 40. Football in Athens, with Her          Donna J. Gelagotis Lee 41. Sierra Leone, Social Learning, and Soccer         Paul Richards 42. Parity        William Heyen 43. Penalty Phase       Gay Talese 44. Platko (Santander, May 20, 1928)            Rafael Alberti Part 5. Belief Introduction      45. The Lord's Prayer, Recast       Edilberto Coutinho 46. Communicate, Lads         Elísabet Jökulsdóttir 47. Five Poems for the Game of Soccer           Umberto Saba 48. Living to Tell a Tale (Letter to Diego)           Hernán Casciari 49. The Empty Pleasure        Mario Vargas Llosa 50. Match         Sarah Wardle 51. Zidane and Me       Philippe Dubath 52. The Sunday I Became World Champion          Friedrich Christian Delius 53. Art Works Football Club         Lawrence Cann 54. Football Is         Crispin Thomas 55. Arsarnerit: Inuit and the Heavenly Game of Football           Mark Nuttall 56. On the Origin of Football       Miroslav Holub Source Acknowledgments  Further Reading  

About the Author :
John Turnbull is a freelance writer on soccer and an editorial consultant. He maintains www.theglobalgame.com, a soccer Web site with an accent on women's soccer, media, and culture. Translator and author Thom Satterlee is associate professor of English at Taylor University. Alon Raab is a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Davis, and the author of articles, reviews, and interviews. Contributors: Rafael Alberti, Eduard Bass, Nalinaksha Bhattacharya, Hebe de Bonafini, Lawrence Cann, Bridget Carson, Hernán Casciari, Elvis Costello, Edilberto Coutinho, Erik Eggers, Friedrich Christian Delius, György Dragomán, Philippe Dubath, Álvaro Enrigue, Eduardo Galeano, Günter Grass, Einar Már Guðmundsson, William Heyen, Miroslav Holub, Ted Hughes, Ian Jack, Elísabet Jökulsdóttir, Ephraim Kishon, Simon Kuper, Anatoly Kuznetsov, Driton Latifi, Donna J. Gelagotis Lee, Mario Vargas Llosa, Subcomandante Marcos, Javier Marías, Andrew Marshall, Stanley Matthews, Christopher Merrill, Mássimo Moratti, Lady Murasaki, Mark Nuttall, Giovanna Pollarolo, Julio Ramón Ribeyro, Paul Richards, Klaus Rifbjerg, Nelson Rodrigues, María Graciela Rodríguez, Umberto Saba, Matilde Sánchez, Thom Satterlee, Rogelio Ramos Signes, Charles Simic, Antonio Skármeta, Osvaldo Soriano, David Starkey, Gay Talese, Crispin Thomas, Bea Vidacs, Luiz Vilela, Sarah Wardle, Ch'ao Yueh-chih, and Uroš Zupan.

Review :
"This volume features an irresistible combination: wonderfully rich essays and deeply nuanced literature, authored by brilliant writers, hailing from different cultures united in their love for soccer, that simple but oh so beautiful game. Kudos to the volume's editors for enriching us with these fine texts." Andrei Markovits, author of Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism "[T]he first truly global survey of writing on the global game. We should be grateful...Alongside Britain, the first great centres of footballing innovation were Central Europe and Latin America, and both are well represented here...the style and tone and subject matter of the pieces in this book are as diverse as the 208 member nations of FIFA...that in itself is one of the joys of dipping into The Global Game. But even better, the collection gives a powerful reminder to Anglo-Saxon literary cultures that football- the most global cultural phenomenon of all - has a rich, multivocal literary tradition." David Goldblatt, Times Literary Supplement, 9th Jan 2009 "There are some excellent pieces...Ian Jack is evocative in discussing Dunfermline, Slovenian poet Uros Zupan's piece on beauty and loss is poignant, and Mark Nuttall's on the importance of football to the Inuit is fascinating." Jonathan Wilson, FOURFOURTWO, Feb 2009