Includes "The Empty Pleasure" by 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature Winner Mario Vargas Llosa
The world's most popular sport, soccer, is also one of the planet's prevalent cultural expressions, celebrated and debated as an art form, observed with ritual and passion. Thus it has inspired literary efforts of every sort, from every corner of the globe, by women and men. The writings gathered in this volume reflect the universal and infinitely varied ways in which soccer connects with human experience. Poetry and prose from Ted Hughes, Charles Simic, Eduardo Galeano, Gunter Grass, Giovanna Pollarolo, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Elvis Costello-to name but a few-take us to a dizzying array of cultures and climes. From a patch of ground in Missoula, Montana, to a clearing in a Kosovo forest, from the stadiums of Burma and Iran to the northern lights over Greenland to remotest Sierra Leone, these writers show us soccer's stars and fans, politics and rituals, as well as the game's power to encourage resistance, inspire faith, and build community.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note to Readers
Part 1. Space
Introduction
1. The Orb
Klaus Rifbjerg
2. The Origins
Eduardo Galeano
3. Hem and Football
Nalinaksha Bhattacharya
4. The Daily Life of Cameroonian Football
Bea Vidacs
5. The Soccer Moms--1996
David Starkey
6. Atiguibas
Julio Ramón Ribeyro
7. Why Eleven of All Numbers? Football between Carnival and Freemasonry
Erik Eggers
8. Klapzuba's Eleven
Eduard Bass
9. Holland, a Country of Clubs
Simon Kuper
10. Readymade
Álvaro Enrigue
11. Soccer Fields, Fort Missoula
Bridget Carson
12. "Get Him a Body Bag!" (A Brief, Enthusiastic Account)
María Graciela Rodríguez
Part 2. Improvisation
Introduction
13. Young Shoots
Lady Murasaki
14. A Boy Juggling a Soccer Ball
Christopher Merrill
15. Fallen from the Sky
Javier Marías
16. Combing Over History
Stanley Matthews
17. Encomiastic Arts of Our National Gamesmen
Antonio Skármeta
18. The Longest Penalty Ever
Osvaldo Soriano
19. Fretting While the Scarlet Tide Make History
Elvis Costello
20. Streaker Disrupts Iceland vs. Albania
Einar Már Gumundsson
21. Football at Slack
Ted Hughes
22. Dead Radio
Charles Simic
23. Fahrenheit 1976
Rogelio Ramos Signes
Part 3. Challenge
Introduction
24. Dreaming of Sunday Afternoons
Giovanna Pollarolo
25. A Fine Fla-Flu
Nelson Rodrigues
26. Escaping with the Ball
Luiz Vilela
27. Generals and Fools
Andrew Marshall
28. 1974
Günter Grass
29. End of the World
György Dragomán
30. Not So Much a Religion, More a Way of Life
Ian Jack
31. Kimmel Springs vs. Metula
Ephraim Kishon
32. For the Sake of My Right and Not Football
Anonymous
33. Let the Games Begin
Subcomandante Marcos and Mássimo Moratti
Part 4. Loss
Introduction
34. On a Painting of Playing Football
Ch'ao Yueh-chih
35. Beauty Is Nothing but the Beginning of a Terror We Can Hardly Bear 000
Uro Zupan
36. Playing Football in Secret
Driton Latifi
37. Why Does My Wife Love Peter Crouch?
Thom Satterlee
38. The Dynamo Team: Legend and Fact
Anatoly Kuznetsov
39. Boycotting the World Cup
Hebe de Bonafini and Matilde Sánchez
40. Football in Athens, with Her
Donna J. Gelagotis Lee
41. Sierra Leone, Social Learning, and Soccer
Paul Richards
42. Parity
William Heyen
43. Penalty Phase
Gay Talese
44. Platko (Santander, May 20, 1928)
Rafael Alberti
Part 5. Belief
Introduction
45. The Lord's Prayer, Recast
Edilberto Coutinho
46. Communicate, Lads
Elísabet Jökulsdóttir
47. Five Poems for the Game of Soccer
Umberto Saba
48. Living to Tell a Tale (Letter to Diego)
Hernán Casciari
49. The Empty Pleasure
Mario Vargas Llosa
50. Match
Sarah Wardle
51. Zidane and Me
Philippe Dubath
52. The Sunday I Became World Champion
Friedrich Christian Delius
53. Art Works Football Club
Lawrence Cann
54. Football Is
Crispin Thomas
55. Arsarnerit: Inuit and the Heavenly Game of Football
Mark Nuttall
56. On the Origin of Football
Miroslav Holub
Source Acknowledgments
Further Reading
