Danish Dynamite: The Story of Football's Greatest Cult Team

Description

The Denmark side of the 1980s was one of the last truly iconic international football teams. Although they did not win a trophy, they claimed something much more important and enduring: glory, and in industrial quantities. They were a bewitching fusion of futuristic attacking football, effortless Scandinavian cool and laid-back living. They played like angels and lived like you and I, and they were everyone's second team in the mid-1980s. The story of Danish Dynamite, as the team became known, is the story of a team of rock stars in a polyester Hummel kit. Heralding from a country with no real football history to speak of and a population of five million, this humble and likeable team was unique. Everymen off the field and superheroes on it, they were totally of their time, and their approach to the game was in complete contrast to the gaudy excess and charmless arrogance of today's football stars. That they ultimately imploded in spectacular style, with a shocking 5-1 defeat to Spain in the 1986 World Cup in a game that almost everyone expected them to win, only adds to their legend. For the first time in English, Danish Dynamite tells the story of perhaps the coolest team in football history, a team that had it all and blew it in spectacular style after a live-fast-die-young World Cup campaign. Featuring interviews with the players themselves, including Michael Laudrup, Preben Elkjaer and Jesper Olsen, as well as with those who played or managed against them, this is a joyous celebration of one of the most life-affirming teams the world has ever seen.

Rob Smyth has written for the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, Wisden, Intelligent Life, GQ Style, Sports Illustrated and the official Manchester United magazine. He has also written four books. Lars Eriksen worked for the Guardian before relocating to his native Denmark. He now lives in Copenhagen and has written for magazines including Vice, Playboy and The Gourmand. Mike Gibbons has written for the Planet World Cup website, extracts of which have been republished in numerous books, including a full article on George Best's international career in George Best: A Celebration.

Danish Dynamite is a wonderful read and an exhilarating nostalgia trip. * When Saturday Comes * Full of interviews with Laudrup, Elkjaer et al, this celebration is a hugely uplifting one * Four Four Two * It will remind you just how laid-back and cool some losers can be. * Esquire * This enjoyable reverie is worth having * Irish Examiner *