Simon Kuper

" ... explores the myths of Holland's "Good War" -- the brave nation that hid Anne Frank from the Nazis -- by using the story of soccer in Holland and the Amsterdam club Ajax to puncture the tales that post-war Holland lives by. Through interviews with Resistance fighters, survivors, wartime soccer players and more, Kuper uncovers a history that has been largely ignored. Ranging far beyond the Netherlands and examining the stories of soccer and war in England, German and France, Kuper writes an alternative history of Europe at its darkest hour. He helps change the way we understand ordinary people's experience of the war in Europe." -- Back cover.

At last, football has its answer to Freakonomics, The Tipping Point and The Undercover Economist.Why do England lose?"Why do Newcastle United always buy the wrong players?""How could Nottingham Forest go from winning the European Cup to the depths of League One?""Penalties - what are they good for?"These are questions every football fan has asked. Why England Lose answers them. It brings the techniques of bestselling books such as Freakonomics and The Undercover Economist to bear on our national sport. Written with an economist's brain and a football writer's skill, it applies high-powered analytical tools to everyday football topics.Why England Lose isn't in the first place about money. It's about looking at data in new ways. It's about revealing counterintuitive truths about football. It explains all manner of things about the game which newspapers just can't see. It all adds up to a new way of looking at football, beyond cliches about "The Magic of the FA Cup", "England's Shock Defeat" and "Newcastle's New South American Star".No training in economics is needed to read Why England Lose. But the reader will come out of it with a better understanding not just of football, but of how economists think and what they know.

"With rare and unrivaled access, bestselling coauthor of Soccernomics and longtime Financial Times journalist Simon Kuper tells the story of how FC Barcelona became the most successful club in the world-and how that era is now ending"--

Using insights and analogies from economics, statistics, psychology, and business to cast a new and entertaining light on how the game of soccer works, "Soccernomics" reveals the often surprisingly counterintuitive truths about the world's most popular game. An essential guide for the 2010 World Cup.

In his national bestseller, "Soccernomics," Simon Kuper pioneered a new way of looking at soccer, the world's most popular game, through his witty and meticulous use of data. In "Soccer Men," Kuper explores the heart and soul of the sport by getting up close and personal with soccer's greatest players and coaches. An inquiry into the genius and hubris of the modern game, "Soccer Men" details the lives of international stars such as Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Josep Guardiola, Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, and David Beckham, describing their upbringings, the soccer cultures they grew up in, the way they play or coach, and the baggage they bring to their relationships at work.