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. “I was no visionary,” he declares in an early chapter, emphasizing how little he knew about the game in his early years. When it comes to the 1994 World Cup, Rothenberg classifies himself instead as “a salesman for soccer.” The truth lies somewhere between the two.

What’s beyond dispute is Rothenberg’s importance in guiding the U.S. game through the critical era that followed the collapse of the North American Soccer League in 1984. 

First, he oversaw that summer’s Olympic soccer tournament in LA, finally opening FIFA’s eyes to the financial possibilities of the North American game. As head of the U.S. Soccer Federation from 1990, he wrenched the women’s game to the front of the queue ahead of the 1991 World Cup, after admitting he didn’t even know there was a women’s national team. In charge of USA 94’s organizing committee, he successfully pulled off a lucrative and popular tournament taking place in virgin FIFA territory. And despite a paucity of cash and backers, he guided a bawling and flailing Major League Soccer out of the sporting womb, convinced that it would manage to crawl, walk, run, then survive and thrive.

Few would argue with the well-earned plaudits. However, my responsibility here is to answer the following question: Is his book worthy of your time and dime?

Reading Rothenberg is at first like finding yourself at a party hosted by an eminent personality who entertains his listeners with all the things he’s done and seen, and all the people he knows. There’s a lot to take on board, and plenty to hold your attention. However, you have to rely on quotes from other people to find out much about the person inside. “The thing I love about Alan,” former women’s national team coach Anson Dorrance says, “is he didn’t pretend to know anything about the game, and he left me alone.” Foudy celebrates him for being “open-minded and flexible and willing to think for himself. You could talk to him.”

There are a lot of similar quotes in The Big Bounce, which begin to lend the book an unnatural flow. When we are on first-person territory, talking about events as they were experienced by Rothenberg in person, the book races along.

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