Angels with dirty faces : how Argentinian soccer defined a nation and changed the game forever /
Argentina has produced Alfredo Di Stéfano, Diego Maradona, and Lionel Messi--some of the greatest soccer players of all time. The country's rich, volatile history is by turns sublime and ruthlessly pragmatic. A nation obsessed with soccer, Argentina lives and breathes the game, its theories, an...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Nation Books,
[2016]
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| Summary: | Argentina has produced Alfredo Di Stéfano, Diego Maradona, and Lionel Messi--some of the greatest soccer players of all time. The country's rich, volatile history is by turns sublime and ruthlessly pragmatic. A nation obsessed with soccer, Argentina lives and breathes the game, its theories, and its myths. Jonathan Wilson lived in Buenos Aires, in an apartment between La Recoleta Cemetery--where the country's leading poets and politicians are buried--and the Huracán stadium. Like his apartment, Angels with Dirty Faces lies at the intersection of politics, literature, and sport. Here, he chronicles the evolution of Argentinian soccer: the appropriation of the British game, the golden age of la nuestra, the exuberant style of playing that developed as Juan Perón led the country into isolation, a hardening into the brutal methods of anti-fútbol, the fusing of beauty and efficacy under César Luis Menotti, and the emergence of all-time greats in Maradona and Messi against a backdrop of economic turbulence. |
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| Physical Description: | xviii, 411 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 386-400) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781568585512 1568585519 |