Luis Suarez - The Biography of the World's Most Controversial Footballer


Book Description

He's the best striker in world football today - but also the most controversial. Banned three times for biting opponents - including the shameful episode with Italy's Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil - Luis Suarez has also been embroiled in a race row with Manchester United's Patrice Evra and been public enemy number one at the 2010 World Cup after handballing on the line in Uruguay's quarter-final against Ghana.Yet on the field he has brought only goals galore and glory to every team he has played for. At 18 he was in the first eleven at Uruguay's top club Nacional and played a major role in their 2006 league triumph. Then he captained Ajax Amsterdam to Dutch Cup glory in Holland and transformed Liverpool into a titlechasing team in 2013-14. Almost miraculously, Suarez then overcame an ankle injury operation to kill off England with two wonderful goals in the 2014 World Cup.It was the prospect of such remarkable feats that encouraged Spanish giants Barcelona to offer a mind-boggling ?72million for his services in the summer of 2014 - despite his four-month ban for biting Chiellini. Yet what exactly makes this brilliant, but flawed, man tick? What demons lie behind his 'cannibal' acts, his cheating and his frequent bust-ups with fellow pros, and the clubs and managers who fall over themselves to employ him? Just why is Suarez incapable of steering clear from controversy?In this first-ever biography on the Uruguayan superstar, renowned footballing biographer Frank Worrall reveals the good, the bad and the downright ugly traits that define Suarez the footballer and Suarez the man. Here is the inside story of how a troubled boy from a poverty-stricken neighbourhood became the most coveted striker in world football today. How he had to overcome crushing setbacks at every stage of his life: the heartbreak of being abandoned by his father when just a boy, being forced to leave behind his friends in his beloved hometown El Salto for the soulless Montevideo and watching his sweetheart, Sofia, walk away from him.From King of the Kop to World Cup pariah, both hero and villain - this is the full, undiluted story of the footballing phenomenon known as Luis Suarez.







Edible Economics


Book Description

Edible Economics brings the sort of creative fusion that spices up a great kitchen to the often too-disciplined subject of economics For decades, a single, free-market philosophy has dominated global economics. But this intellectual monoculture is bland and unhealthy. Bestselling author and economist Ha-Joon Chang makes challenging economic ideas delicious by plating them alongside stories about food from around the world, using the diverse histories behind familiar food items to explore economic theory. For Chang, chocolate is a lifelong addiction, but more exciting are the insights it offers into postindustrial knowledge economies; and while okra makes Southern gumbo heart-meltingly smooth, it also speaks of capitalism’s entangled relationship with freedom. Myth-busting, witty, and thought-provoking, Edible Economics serves up a feast of bold ideas about globalization, climate change, immigration, austerity, automation, and why carrots need not be orange. It shows that getting to grips with the economy is like learning a recipe: when we understand it, we can adapt and improve it—and better understand our world.




Pop Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean


Book Description

This insightful book introduces the most important trends, people, events, and products of popular culture in Latin America and the Caribbean. In recent times, Latin American influences have permeated American culture through music, movies, television, and literature. This sweeping volume serves as a ready-reference guide to pop culture in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, focusing on Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Costa Rica, among other areas. The work encourages hands-on engagement with the popular culture in these places, making such suggestions as Brazilian films to rent or where to find Venezuelan music on the Internet. To start, the book covers various perspectives and issues of these regions, including the influence of the United States, how the idea of machismo reflects on the portrayal of women in these societies, and the representation of Latino-Caribo cultures in film and other mediums. Entries cover key trends, people, events, and products from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. Each section gives detailed information and profound insights into some of the more academic—and often controversial—debates on the subject, while the inclusion of the Internet, social media, and video games make the book timely and relevant.




Global Perspectives on Football in Africa


Book Description

Football, in many ways, is a visual endeavour. From the visual experience within the stadium itself to worldwide media representations, from advertisements to football art and artefacts: football is much about seeing and being seen, about watching, making visual and being visualised. The FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa has turned into a perfect example of the visual dimensions of football. Stadiums have been built and marketed as tourist attractions, mass media and internet platforms are advertising South African cities and venues, logos and emblems are displayed and celebrated, exhibitions are organised in museums world-wide. This book explores the social, cultural and political role of football in Africa by focusing on the issue of its visibility and invisibility. The contributions consider the history and present of football in different parts of Africa. They examine historical and recent pictures and images of football and football players, as well as places and spaces of their production and perception. They analyse the visual dimensions expressed in sports infrastructure, football media-scapes, and in expressive and material arts. This book thus contributes to the growing interest in football in Africa by exploring a new field of research into sports. This book was previously published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.




The Philosophy of Football


Book Description

Human beings are the only creatures known to engage in sport. We are sporting animals, and our favourite pastime of football is the biggest sport spectacle on earth. The Philosophy of Football presents the first sustained, in-depth philosophical investigation of the phenomenon of football. In explaining the complex nature of football, the book draws on literature in sociology, history, psychology and beyond, offering real-life examples of footballing actions alongside illuminating thought experiments. The book is organized around four main themes considering the character, nature, analysis and aesthetics of football. It discusses football as an extra-ordinary, unnecessary, rule-based, competitive, skill-based physical activity, articulated as a social (as opposed to natural) kind that is fictional in character, and where fairness or fair play – contrary to much sport ethical discussion – is not centre stage. Football, it is argued, is a constructive- destructive contact sport and, in comparison to other sports, is lower scoring and more affected by chance. The latter presents to its spectators a more unpredictable game and a darker, more complex and denser drama to enjoy. The Philosophy of Football deepens our understanding of the familiar features of the game, offering novel interpretations on what football is, how and why we play it, and what the game offers its followers that makes us so eagerly await match day. This is essential reading for anybody with an interest in the world’s most popular game or in the philosophical or social study of sport.




Luis Suarez: Crossing the Line - My Story


Book Description

Luis Suárez was a young boy already in love with football by the time his family moved from the countryside to Uruguay's capital, Montevideo. The guile and trickery of the street kid made an impact with the country's biggest club, Nacional, before he was spotted by Dutch scouts who brought him to Europe. Suárez was lured from Ajax to Merseyside by another iconic number 7, Kenny Dalglish. From that moment, he terrorised Premier League defences, driving a resurgent Liverpool towards their most exciting top-flight season in 24 years. But there is another side to Luis Suárez: the naturally fiery temperament which drives his competitiveness on the pitch. There was the very public incident with Patrice Evra of bitter rivals Manchester United, and the biting of Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic. Then during the World Cup finals in Brazil, in a physical encounter against Italy, he bit defender Giorgi Chiellini on the shoulder. Banned from football for four months, derided by the press, he was marched out of the country. In the summer's final twist, he became one of the most expensive footballers of all time, moving from Liverpool to Barcelona. In his first season at the Nou Camp he helped Barca to La Liga and Copa del Rey titles, scoring 16 goals in 27 games. In Crossing the Line, Luis Suárez talks from the heart about his intriguing career, his personal journey from scrapping street kid to performer on football's biggest stage, and the never-say-die attitude that sometimes causes him to overstep the mark.




Moments, Metaphors, Memories


Book Description

As the most popular mass spectator sport across the world, soccer generates key moments of significance on and off the field, encapsulated in events that create metaphors and memories, with wider social, cultural, psychological, political, commercial and aesthetic implications. Since its inception as a modern game, the history of soccer has been replete with events that have changed the organization, meanings and impact of the sport. The passage from the club to the nation or from the local to the global often opens up transnational spaces that provide a context for studying the events that have ‘defined’ the sport and its followers. Such defining events can include sporting performances, decisions taken by various stakeholders of the game, accidents and violence among players and fans, and invention of supporter cultures, among other things. The present volume attempts to document, identify and analyse some of the defining events in the history of soccer from interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives. It revisits the discourses of signification and memorialization of such events that have influenced society, culture, politics, religion, and commerce. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Soccer & Society.




The Story of the World Cup


Book Description

The dramatic and controversial history of the world's leading tournament. Brian Glanville's classic account is a celebration of the great players and matches from Uruguay in 1930 to Germany in 2006 - and a bold attack on all those who have mismanaged the 'beautiful game'.




Cristiano Ronaldo


Book Description

The definitive award-winning biography of Cristiano Ronaldo - fully updated to include the 2022 World Cup, Ronaldo's explosive exit from Manchester United and his record-breaking transfer to Al-Nassr As the Qatar World Cup opened to worldwide jubilation, Cristiano Ronaldo's second spell at Manchester United reached an abrupt conclusion. It was not to be the fairy tale ending to a glittering career. Instead, over the two seasons, it had snowballed into a toxic standoff between himself, the board and newly appointed manager, Erik ten Hag. The Theatre's dream was over. On 22 November 2022, Ronaldo's contract was terminated. In this compelling account, Guillem Balagué draws on impeccable sources, first-hand interviews and unprecedented access, taking us on a journey from Madeira to Manchester, and onto Spain, Italy and Saudi Arabia. From Ronaldo's tutelage under Sir Alex Ferguson to becoming the biggest galáctico of them all at Real Madrid, and captaining Portugal to the first silverware in their history at the UEFA Euro 2016, Guillem chronicles Ronaldo's career in its entirety. This is nothing less than the definitive portrait of a true icon of modern football, who has reached the very heights of the beautiful game and cemented his place as one of the greatest players of all time.