Arguably David Goldblatt understands the beautiful game better than anyone else in the world. He’s an intellectual, a scholar, a historian, and the best-selling author of The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer. And he’s done it again with a masterpiece called The Age of Football: Soccer and the 21st Century.
Goldblatt takes readers on an exhaustive journey through soccer’s recent history, a 550+ page text that is exceptionally thorough. His message is clear: football is shaped and used by the forces of power. Goldblatt shows that no region, no country is without issues in soccer. Human rights concerns in Qatar. Matchfixing in Scandanavia. Corruption in Concacaf. The Fall of Blatter’s FIFA. Crowd violence in Africa. The list unfortunately goes on and on.
After experiencing the grind of political campaigns for a number of years early in my career, I turned to soccer. I loved the beauty of the game but quickly found that politics was deeply ingrained in soccer too. Goldblatt explains just how this happened and how damaging it can be.
Over and over again Goldblatt proves to be the most intellectual of the major soccer writers. Reading his work requires thought by the reader, but the reward is high. You’ll come to a deeper understanding and a deeper appreciation for a game enjoyed by millions. His research is impeccable and you get information from multiple perspectives and sources. You won’t find mindless rants or opinions with no evidence or backing.
A strong introduction and conclusion bookend hundreds of pages of content on various regions of the world: Africa, Middle East, South America, Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Russia. The text feels fresh and up-to-date with a number of discussions centering around rather current events, including the 2018 World Cup.
If you really want to understand what make global soccer tick, read David Goldblatt’s The Age of Football.
