This Is Football - by Daniel Melamud (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A celebration of the timeless beauty of soccer--its greatest and most stylish players, from past heroes to today's stars, along with its hallowed grounds.

Football, or soccer as it's known in the US, has been around for more than two hundred years and in some ways remains largely unchanged. It is the timelessness of the game that is celebrated in This Is Football.
Lavishly illustrated with striking images of on-field action as well as candid dressing-room moments taken by some of the most respected photographers in sport, the book serves as both a primer and a nostalgic love letter to the beauty of the game.

Readers will venture on a journey to South America, where football became beautiful in the 1960s, and to Spain, where tiki-taka revolutionised the game in the 1980s. From Dennis Bergkamp's sublime control and finish against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup to Sergio Agüero's last-minute strike of the 2011/12 season--winning Manchester City their first Premier League title, This Is Football captures many of the game's most extraordinary events and players.

Organised by player position, each chapter highlights some of the biggest names to have graced the pitch, from Pelé to David Beckham and Mia Hamm to Marta, as well as historic moments they helped create. Featuring phenomenal goals, inspired midfield play, heroic defending, and eye-catchingly colourful goalkeeping, this book illustrates why soccer is the most popular sport in the world and why it is truly loved by so many.

Review Quotes

"I don't think I've seen such a gorgeous collection of football photographs anywhere before. In this book, it's truly the beautiful game. I ate it all up with a mixture of wonder and nostalgia." -- Simon Kuper

"Feast Your Eyes. With contributions by the American soccer player Christian Pulisic and the former Jamaican-English player Robbie Earle, this is an homage to the sport in images - from iconic photographs of famous winning shots (and legendary blocks) and some of the largest stadiums in the world, to makeshift goals erected or even painted into public spaces in the mountains of Morocco or the streets of Buenos Aires." -- New York Times Book Review

"This richly illustrated book takes you to the heart of the action, guiding football fanatics along a nostalgic path through the game's history while revealing to the novice just what the fuss is all about with an entertaining Q and A on the world's most popular sport. Hundreds of glorious photographs tell the story. Matches range from domestic leagues around the globe to World Cup finals; images of players relaxing away from the pitch and straining in the heat of combat give a comprehensive and insightful picture of the game. At various stages author Daniel Melamud and former player and now TV pundit Robbie Earle draw back from the imagery to discuss the fundamentals of the game and reveal what attracted them to it in the first place. Effectively they are asking: "What is football?" This wonderful book provides the answer: "This is Football". And just like the game on its best day - it is absolutely beautiful." -- Bill Edgar

About the Author

Daniel Melamud is a writer, editor, photographer, and lifelong football fan who once scored from thirty yards out in an unsuccessful trial for Barnet. He is the award-winning author of This Is Cricket: In the Spirit of the Game (Wisden Book of the Year and Telegraph Sports Book Awards Illustrated Book of the Year) and Pulisic: My Journey So Far (Foreword Reviews' Book of the Year award winner and shortlisted in the Sunday Times Sports Book Awards). Robbie Earle MBE is an English-born Jamaican former international soccer player who is a presenter for NBC Sports' coverage of the Premier League. Christian Pulisic is an American soccer player who plays for AC Milan and the United States national team.