The best always seem to get better. That is certainly the case with Phil Stead’s Red Dragons: The Story of Welsh Football. A new edition provides updates to arguably the top football title of 2012.
The new edition now contains the “Road to France,” the story of Wales’ qualification for Euro 2016. It is a journey of triumph and success that caps off a Welsh football history that is best described as a roller coaster. Wales has been the home for great football for many, many years, but winning hasn’t always been easy.
We are now in the midst of a golden generation of Welsh footballers, perhaps the best the world has ever seen. They are expected to be a contender in the Euros and hopefully again at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. This book tells their story.
It is a story that includes modern footballers like Ryan Giggs, Gareth Bale, and Ashley Williams as well as those that came before. Legends like Billy Meredith, Ian Rush, John Charles, Leigh Richmond Roose, and Neville Southall are remembered fondly thanks to this title.
We hear about great times like making the 1958 World Cup and a number of wins against England, but we were also shown the devastation surrounding the tragic deaths of John Hill and Gary Speed. It’s a complete, authentic, and definitive history of football in Wales.
Frankly we think this title is the best of the season and as we said back in 2012, it is still one of the greatest football titles we’ve ever read.
