Our ‘Top Ten Football books’ list continues to grow with this contribution from author and football historian Chris Jones. He is the author of England’s Calamity? A New Interpretation of the ‘Match of the Century’ which looks at the famous 1953 match at Wembley when Hungary beat England 6-3. The crushing defeat has long been seen as the watershed moment when England cast off its training methods and tactics of the past to embrace new continental practices. Jones however takes a different view in his book arguing that the defeat was not a revolutionary moment but one key part of an evolutionary process.

Here then is Jones’ list:

1. Football in Sun and Shadow, Eduardo Galeano

A Uruguayan philosopher and polemicist shows how it should be done with his focussed vignettes on all elements of the game.

2. Only a Game?: The Diary of a Professional Footballer, Eamonn Dunphy.

A raw and incredibly open account of Dunphy’s own career and life during a season as a player at Millwall in the mid-1970s.

3. The Football Man: People & Passions in Soccer, Arthur Hopcraft.

An early journey of analysis which set a bench mark for others to follow from the 1960s.

4. Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics, Jonathon Wilson.

You only ever need to read one book on the development of football tactics throughout the world – this is it.

5. Three Kings, Leo Moynihan.

Balance in approach blends this detailed analysis of three friends who ruled the British football world for 20 years.

6. Those Feet: A Sensual History of English Football, David Winner.

A unique, tangential book bringing forward new perspectives of how to view the game.

7. The Age of Football: The Global Game in the Twenty-first Century, David Goldblatt.

The breadth is incredible, assessing the current game worldwide in all its corrupt, money mad reality.

8. Don Revie: The Biography, Christopher Evans.

The standard bearer for football biographies. If only they were all this good.

9. My Father and Other Working Class Footballers, Gary Imlach

A touching, deeply written book that takes us into the life of one from a different age.

10. A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke, Ronald Reng.

A superb and sensitively written book on the life of Enke, outlining the pressure of life and his experiences.

Read the FBR review here: https://footballbookreviews.com/reviews/book-review-a-life-too-short-the-tragedy-of-robert-enke-by-ronald-reng-translated-into-english-by-shaun-whiteside