How Soccer Explains the World

Fore beginning, I should note that this book doesn't really offer the sort of unified theory that its title suggests. That's okay by me – I knew what I was going to get when I started it, and it's what I wanted. It would be more accurate to say that it's an examination of soccer culture from around the world, broken up into discrete chapters by region. I worry a little that that description gives it short shrift. It's not strictly about soccer, nor is it confined to the inside of soccer grounds. Rather, it investigates the bidirectional flow of local culture to and from its soccer teams.

Topics include right-wing Serbian nationalism with respect to Red Star Belgrade; Scottish sectarianism and the Old Firm, in Rangers and Celtic; Italian corruption in Juventus and AC Milan; cultural divisions in US soccer and American sport in general; and several others.

Foer is a devoted soccer fan, as am I. He's a huge Barcelona fan and I think he gets a little heavy in his praise for them. I should note that I also have strong biases – I pay little attention to Spanish football, but for example, I support Celtic and am going to have particular preexisting views on the Old Firm regardless of what Foer writes.

All this by way of saying that I think Foer mostly plays it straight, but you should consider your sources, both him and me. In his writeup of the Old Firm rivalry, for example, Celtic supporters come out looking far better than Rangers supporters, but not completely innocent. I personally think this is utterly fair, although the bulk of his time by far in that chapter is spent in the company of the Rangers-affiliated. If I were someone else, I wouldn't take my word for it either – but I'd take Foer's, as he doesn't seem to have a horse in that race. Similarly, I'd suggest taking his thoughts on Barcelona vs. Real Madrid with a grain of salt. Past his tendency to view Barca through rose-colored glasses, though, he's got his facts straight there as well – for example, I believe it's beyond question that Real were Franco's team of choice, but he doesn't attempt to claim that the club was complicit, which I've seen suggested before by others.

As an American soccer fan, while the chapter on American soccer wasn't my favorite to read, Foer's got his head on straight there as well. He's correctly identified soccer as a boutique sport in the US, versus its solidly working-class roots elsewhere in the world, and he doesn't attempt to let the pro-soccer side – that's both his side and mine, for those keeping track at home – off the hook for its cultural snobbery, even as he eviscerates know-nothing morons like Jim Rome on the other side.

This doesn't get all that much play in the book, but Foer mixes with some genuinely nasty characters in his research for the book. I'd note for posterity that he put himself in harm's way for the opportunity to talk to old-school hooligans and paramilitary types – Belgrade comes to mind.

Very much a worthwhile read for a soccer fan interested in cultural background, educational and entertaining. Note that this is an impressionistic, cultural whirlwind tour, not a by-the-numbers analysis.

Decent book. Found that it was more anecdotes about the world surrounding soccer than any sort of explanation of the soccer world, let alone the world as a whole. Interesting stories, though. Mostly compelling - frequently saddening, with all the useless, irrational hate and violence, and not a ton said in favor of a sport the author clearly cherishes.