📖 Who Owns Football?: The Changing Face of Club Ownership By Nick Miller (Bloomsbury) This book cites the old joke that asks the best way to become a millionaire. Answer: become a billionaire and then buy a soccer club. It still rings true, but since that gag was current, the game’s ownership has changed in […]
reviews
Posted inSoccer America Confidential
Viewing Saudi Arabian soccer through a wider lens
As if the relationship between Saudi Arabia and global soccer wasn’t already a large part of the global soccer conversation given the recruitment of international stars into the Saudi Pro League, its future hosting of the 2034 World Cup has given pundits even more reason to cast an eye at the country and its relationship […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential
How fanzines in the 1980s revolutionized UK soccer coverage
Gray’s book focuses on a fan-led phenomenon born of frustration. Supporters in the 1970s and 80s were not just treated as an inconvenience, they were blamed for most of the game’s ills.
Posted inSoccer America Confidential
‘Last Guest’: A gay soccer redemption
How two young filmmakers — with help from Robbie Rogers and, in a roundabout way, Charlie Davies — created the year’s most penetrating documentary portrait and provided a long-lost English/NASL standout a new lease on life. WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Two inexperienced filmmakers, new in town with no significant credits to their name, stumble upon […]
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Book Review: How we can make refereeing less impossible
The Impossible Job: The Unbelievable World of Soccer Referees By William Ralston (WW Norton)* When I touted my idea of a book chronicling the woes of an amateur soccer ref a few years back, publishers assured me that “no one buys books about refereeing.” Thankfully, journalist William Ralston has found someone who disagrees with that […]
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Book on Lionel Messi focuses on MLS structure
The Messi Effect: How the Global Legend Changed the Future of American Soccer by Paul Tenorio, St. Martin’s Press. “Signing Messi in 2023 was meant to be a wrecking ball to break through the league’s structure,” Paul Tenorio writes of Inter Miami’s signing of the somewhat storied Argentine No. 10. While fiscal conservatism and owner […]
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A wave of documentaries tackle American soccer
Decades ago, the NFL made a remarkable discovery — marketing through myth-making and story-telling. The NFL Films unit changed the way pro football was viewed. Passes sailed through the air in slow motion before arriving at their targets with a backdrop of thrilling orchestral music that was far more engaging than what passed for “classical” […]
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Book review: The story of Kylian Mbappé is only half told
When Mbappé moves from home in his early teen years from hometown club Bondy, in the Parisian suburbs, to the French academy of excellence at Clarefontaine, he’s not just homesick but also no longer the best player.
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The Alan Rothenberg Book: An important contribution to the canon of U.S. soccer history
The Big Bounce: The Surge That Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer By Alan Rothenberg (Triumph Books) Before we start to read Alan Rothenberg’s life story, both Julie Foudy and Alexi Lalas tell us upfront that the man who has done so much for the U.S. game is “a visionary.” Rothenberg directly contradicts that view. […]
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The Soccer America Library
The 2026 World Cup has sparked an unprecedented amount soccer publishing.