Recommended football books from the TWG audience

On our social media pages, we asked our audience what was their favourite football book as so many people around the world stay home and help fight the spread of coronavirus. Here is a full list of their recommendations.

Football books

Source: Supplied

Books

Australian Books:

By The Balls: Memoir of a Football Tragic - by Les Murray.

Changing the Game: Football in Australia Through My Eyes - by Ange Postecoglou and Andy Harper.

Encyclopedia of Matildas - by Andrew Howe. 

Encyclopedia of Socceroos - by Andrew Howe. 

Fighting for Hakeem - by Craig Foster.

Introducing Jarrod Black: An Unashamed Football Novel - by Texi Smith. 

Just a Gob on a Stick - by Simon Hill. 

Mr and Mrs Soccer: On and Off the field with Australia's favourite sporting couple, Johnny Warren and Les Murray - by Andy Harper.

Mr Cleansheets - by Adrian Deans. 

Never Say Die: The Hundred-Year Overnight Success of Australian Women's Football - by Fiona Crawford and Lee McGowan.

Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters: An incomplete biography of Johnny Warren and Soccer in Australia - by Johnny Warren. 

That Night: A Decade On, the Story of Australian Football's Greatest Night - by Adam Peacock.

The Death and Life of Australian Soccer - by Joe Gorman. 

The Game That Never Happened: The Vanishing History of Soccer in Australia - by Ian Syson.

International Books:

A Life too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke - by Ronald Reng.

A Season with Verona: Travels Around Italy in Search of Dreams, National Character and . . . Goals! - by Tim Parks. 

All Played Out: The Full Story of Italia '90 - by Pete Davies.

Das Reboot: How German Football Reinvented Itself and Conquered the World - by Raphael Honigstein. 

El Diego: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Footballer - by Diego Maradona.

Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona Vs Real Madrid - by Sid Lowe. 

Fearless: The Amazing Underdog Story of Leicester City, the Greatest Miracle in Sports History - by Jonathan Northcroft.

Fever Pitch: A Fan's Life - by Nick Hornby.

Football Against The Enemy - by Simon Kuper. 

Football in Sun and Shadow: An Emotional History of World Cup Football - by Eduardo Galeano. 

Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life - by Alex Bellos. 

God is Round: Tackling the Giants, Villains, Triumphs, and Scandals of the World's Favourite Game - by Juan Villoro.

Greatest Comeback: From Genocide to Football Glory - The Story of Bela Guttman - by David Bolchover.

I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic - by David Lagercrantz and Zlatan Ibrahimović. 

Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics - by Jonathan Wilson.

Invincible: Inside Arsenal's Unbeaten 2003-2004 Season - by Amy Lawrence.

Keane: The Autobiography - by Roy Keane.

Maradona: The Hand of God - by Jimmy Burns. 

My Story - by Steven Gerrard. 

Provided You Don't Kiss Me: 20 Years with Brian Clough - by Duncan Hamilton. 

Soccer Skills: A Step-By-Step Guide To Winning Play - by Bryan Robson.

Soccernomics: Why England Loses; Why Germany, Spain, and France Win; and Why One Day Japan, Iraq, and the United States Will Become Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport - by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski. 

The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football - by David Goldblatt.

The Crazy Gang: The True Inside Story of Football's Greatest Miracle - by Dave Bassett and Wally Downes. 

The Glory Game - by Hunter Davies. 

The Italian Job: A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures - by Gabriele Marcotti and Gianluca Vialli.

Thinking Out Loud - by Rio Ferdinand. 

Under the Lights and in the Dark: Untold Stories of Women's Soccer - by Gwendolyn Oxenham. 

Ups And Downs: The Inside Stories From Leeds United's Biggest Matches - by James Willoughby.


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Watch the FIFA World Cup 2026™, Tour de France, Tour de France Femmes, Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España, Dakar Rally, World Athletics / ISU Championships (and more) via SBS On Demand – your free live streaming and catch-up service.
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4 min read
Published 26 March 2020 4:27pm
Source: SBS The World Game


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