Angels With Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina

Description

The definitive history of Argentinian football from the award-winning author of Inverting the Pyramid Alfredo Di Stefano, Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, Juan Roman Riquelme, Lionel Messi . . . Argentina has produced some of the greatest footballers of all time. But the rich, volatile history of Argentinian football is made up of both the sublime and the ruthlessly pragmatic. Jonathan Wilson, having lived there on and off during the last decade, is ideally placed to chart the sport's development in a country that, perhaps more than any other, lives and breathes football, its theories and its myths. 'Simultaneously epic and intimate, this is a magisterial work: not just a history of Argentinian football, but a history of Argentina' Tom Holland 'People who like football like Brazil; people who love it love Argentina. This is essential, enthralling reading about the world's most intriguing, most important football culture' Rory Smith

Jonathan Wilson's Inverting the Pyramid won the National Sporting Club Book of the Year award, and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. His other books include Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football; Sunderland: A Club Transformed; The Anatomy of England: A History in Ten Matches; Nobody Ever Says Thank You, a critically acclaimed biography of Brian Clough; The Outsider: A History of the Goalkeeper; The Anatomy of Liverpool; Angels with Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina; and The Anatomy of Manchester United. He writes for the Guardian, Sports Illustrated and World Soccer, and he is the editor of The Blizzard. Follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jonawils

In its expression of ruined promise, domestic football in Argentina has mirrored the country's social, financial and political life . . . An inescapable sense of regret and decay pervades this thorough and evocative chronicle - Sunday Times, Best Sports Books of 2016 The definitive history of Argentinian football - Guardian Enthralling and often disturbing . . . The author is at his best when he is dissecting Argentinian football's idealised, aesthetically pleasing past, the psychodrama of its modern game, and its chequered football history - New Statesman