If you love numbers, data, soccer, or a just a great read, you will absolutely love the 2018 World Cup edition of Soccernomics from Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski.
Yes, this is Moneyball for the beautiful game. While there won’t be a movie starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, there are plenty of beautiful statistics and a pair of mathematical rock stars as authors. These statistics are enough to restore your optimism for soccer in the United States. We did miss out on the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but if you buy into what this book says, you should feel great about the future of the American game. Here’s some key takeaways that should help you in your next argument about the future of soccer.
- Roughly one million people play tackle football worldwide. 265 million people play soccer worldwide.
- In 2009 the Champions League final overtook the Super Bowl as the world’s most watched sporting event.
- In 2014 a matchup between USA and Portgual became the most-watch men’s soccer match ever in the U.S. The audience was bigger than Game Seven of the World Series that same year, but the Portugal game was not in peak viewing hours. It kicked off at 5 pm ET, 2 pm PT. Primetime is 8-10 pm ET.
- More American children under 12 play soccer than baseball, football, and ice hockey combined.
The book covers every level of the game and even our friends at Detroit City FC over in the NPSL get a nice mention on page 289.
The positive vibe surrounding the entire text is quite evident from start to finish. I’m sure readers in Iraq, Palestine, and Japan would say the same thing as the authors are bullish on those countries and their futures in international soccer.
There’s so much more in 457 pages of content (not including acknowledgements, author notes, index, or bibliography) in this unworldly title. It literally covers everything from TV rights, corruption, transfers, World Cup bids, and absolutely everything in between.
It’s a hefty read to say the least, but it is thoroughly enjoyable and as the saying goes, “time flies when you’re having fun.”
