Soccer World Spain

Soccer World Spain
Author: Ethan Zohn
Publisher: Nomad Press
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2011-04-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1619304031

Journeying to the country that won the 2010 FIFA World Cup, this book explores the culture of Spain through the world’s most popular sport: soccer. From watching an amazing game between world class rivals Real Madrid and FC Barcelona to exploring island volcanic landscapes and witnessing the many fiestas that are celebrated there, readers join professional soccer player Ethan Zohn on the experience of a lifetime. Activities generated from each chapter include learning a phrase in each of the different languages that Spain recognizes, making a sand-drip sand castle to understand the concept of surface tension, and creating a time capsule unique to a family's culture and era. Readers will also have the opportunity to research a real project in Spain through which they can give back and make a difference in this fascinating country.

Soccer in Spain

Soccer in Spain
Author: Timothy J. Ashton
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2013-09-12
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0810891743

Soccer has the unique ability to represent and strengthen different cultural identities and ideologies throughout the world. Perhaps nowhere can this be seen more prominently than in Spain, which has surged to the forefront of the world’s most popular sport. The national team has won the last two European Championships and the 2010 World Cup, while the two preeminent club teams in Spain, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, have reached the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Even before the sport became a global phenomenon, soccer had established a strong connection with Spanish identity and culture. In Soccer in Spain: Politics, Literature, and Film, Timothy J. Ashton examines the sport’s association with Spanish culture and society. In this volume, Ashton demonstrates how Spain’s soccer clubs reflected the politics of the region they represented and continue to reflect them today. The author also explores the often-tenuous relationship between the intellectual classes and the soccer community in Spain. Although some of the country’s most highly-praised literary figures had a passion for soccer—which was often reflected in their work—many intellectuals deemed the topic unsuitable for critical study. Ashton also discusses how soccer films faced a similar rebuff from Spanish intellectuals, though the popularity of these films has grown in recent years. As soccer continues to be one of the modern world’s most significant representations of globalization, its importance as a cultural touchpoint cannot be ignored. For anyone wanting to learn more about the relationship between soccer, politics, and popular culture, this volume offers critical insights. Soccer in Spain is a valuable read for students and scholars of Spanish political history, literature, film, and sport.

La Roja

La Roja
Author: Jimmy Burns
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2012-05-10
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0857206559

The author of a best-selling biography of Diego Maradona, and similarly widely acclaimed books on FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, digs deep into the roots of the most popular sport, to look at how football played in Spain became the most admired in the world. From its early beginnings when the first football on the shores of Bilbao and Buenos Aires was played by British sailors and engineers, through to the influx of South American stars, and similarly inspirational Italians, Dutchman and Scandinavians, the author shows how the engagement of foreigners with home-grown Spanish talent overcame political adversity and produced football of sublime skill, passion, and unparalleled entertainment value. The book takes us on a journey through some of the extraordinary characters, games, and moments that have defined Spanish football from the early days when a few enthusiasts developed their talent kicking a ball around on a piece of industrial waste-ground or beach, to the emergence of rival giants, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid - the most powerful and successful football clubs in the world - and a national team that, encompassing all that was most brilliant in the Spanish League, became the World Champions.

Fear and Loathing in La Liga

Fear and Loathing in La Liga
Author: Sid Lowe
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2013-09-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1446496635

‘A history of modern Spain told through one of world football's most intense rivalries’ Independent ‘Sports Book of the Year’ Sunday Times It’s Messi vs Ronaldo, it’s Catalonia vs Castilla. It’s the nation against the state, freedom fighters vs Franco’s fascists. It’s majestic goals and mesmerising skills, red cards and bench brawls. It’s the best two teams on the planet going face to face and toe to toe. It’s more than a game. It’s a war. It’s Barcelona vs Real Madrid. Only, it’s not that simple. From the wounds left by the civil war to the teams’ recent global domination, historian and expert on Spanish football, Sid Lowe lifts the lid on sport’s greatest rivalry. Lowe has spoken to the biggest names and the forgotten heroes who defined their clubs. Men like Alfredo Di Stéfano and Johan Cruyff as well as the only survivor of the most politically charged game in history, the Barcelona striker who knocked Madrid out of the European Cup for the first time ever, and the president who celebrated his club’s defining moment by taking a midnight dip in the Thames. By exploring the history, politics, culture, economics and language, while never forgetting the drama on the pitch, Lowe demonstrates the symbiotic nature of the relationship between these two football giants. In doing so he reveals the human story behind this explosive rivalry.

Soccer, Culture and Society in Spain

Soccer, Culture and Society in Spain
Author: Mariann Vaczi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2015-02-11
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1317677307

Spanish soccer is on top of the world, at international and club level, with the best teams and a seemingly endless supply of exciting and stylish players. While the Spanish economy struggles, its soccer flourishes, deeply embedded throughout Spanish social and cultural life. But the relationship between soccer, culture and national identity in Spain is complex. This fascinating, in-depth study shines new light on Spanish soccer by examining the role this sport plays in Basque identity, consolidated in Athletic Club of Bilbao, the century-old soccer club located in the birthplace of Basque nationalism. Athletic Bilbao has a unique player recruitment policy, allowing only Basque-born players or those developed at the youth academies of Basque clubs to play for the team, a policy that rejects the internationalism of contemporary globalised soccer. Despite this, the club has never been relegated from the top division of Spanish football. A particularly tight bond exists between fans, their club and the players, with Athletic representing a beacon of Basque national identity. This book is an ethnography of a soccer culture where origins, nationalism, gender relations, power and passion, lifecycle events and death rituals gain new meanings as they become, below and beyond the playing field, a matter of creative contention and communal affirmation. Based on unique, in-depth ethnographic research, this book investigates how a soccer club and soccer fandom affect the life of a community, interweaving empirical research material with key contemporary themes in the social sciences, and placing the study in the wider context of Spanish political and sporting cultures. Filling a key gap in the literature on contemporary Spain, and on wider soccer cultures, this book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport, anthropology, sociology, political science, or cultural and gender studies.

Spain

Spain
Author: Carsten Humlebæk
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2014-12-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1441102523

Part of the successful 'Inventing the Nation' history series, this book provides an authoritative and compelling history of Spain in the modern period. Humlebæk places a strong emphasis on the construction of the Spanish national identity and looks at how this identity has emerged and survived amidst the tensions created by the competing, distinct regional identities that exist within the country. Language and language policy, decisive factors in the development of these tensions, are thoroughly examined as Carsten Humlebæk explores the history of Spain along with the very nature of what it is to be Spanish. Beginning with the Napoleonic invasion and the annexation of Spain in 1808, Humlebæk traces Spain's political history through to the present day. He considers the impact of events like the Spanish Civil War and regimes like that of the Restoration on the Spanish sense of national identity before contemplating the future for Spain as a nation-state. This book is the ideal volume for all students of history interested in the modern history of Spain.

Morbo

Morbo
Author: Phil Ball
Publisher: WSC Books Limited
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2003
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780954013462

Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup

Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup
Author: Beau Dure
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2019-11-15
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1538127822

October 10, 2017. The U.S. men’s soccer team loses in Trinidad and Tobago, and fails to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Winning soccer’s greatest prize never seemed more distant. Immediate fixes—a new coach, a revamped professional league, a commitment to coaching education—won’t put the USA in the global elite. The nation is too fractious, too litigious, too wrapped up in other sports, and too late to the game. In Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup: A Historical and Cultural Reality Check, Beau Dure shows what American soccer is really up against. Using hundreds of sources to trace more than 100 years of history, Dure delves into the culture that only recently lost its disdain for the global game and still doesn’t have the depth of soccer insight and passion that much of the world has had for generations. The difficulty isn’t any single thing—the mismanagement of failed leagues, the inability to agree on a path forward, the lawsuits that stem from an inability to agree, or the unique American culture that treasures its homegrown sports. It’s everything. And yet, Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup is ultimately optimistic. Dure argues that with the right long-term changes, the U.S. can build a soccer environment that consistently produces quality players, strong results, and a lot more fun on the international stage. Soccer fans and skeptics alike will find this a fascinating examination of America’s past, present, and future in the beautiful game.

Eight World Cups

Eight World Cups
Author: George Vecsey
Publisher: Times Books
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2014-05-13
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0805098496

"Full of humor and insight about sport and culture.... The pomp, glory, and great entertainment all get their due in Eight World Cups."—The Boston Globe Blending witty travelogue with action on the field—and shady dealings in back rooms—George Vecsey offers an eye-opening, globe-trotting account of eight World Cups. He immerses himself in the great national leagues, historic clubs, and devoted fans and provides his up-close impressions of charismatic soccer stars like Sócrates, Maradona, Baggio, and Zidane, while also chronicling the rise of the U.S. men's and women's teams. Vecsey shows how each host nation has made the World Cup its own, from the all-night street parties in Spain in 1982 to the roar of vuvuzelas in South Africa in 2010, as the game in the stadium is backed up by the game in the street. But the joy is sometimes undermined by those who style themselves the game's protectors.