What Are The Best Football Books to Read? (Top 10 Ranked)
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What Are The Best Football Books to Read? (Top 10 Ranked)

What Are The Best Football Books to Read? (Top 10 Ranked)

Look, I used to think football books were just ghostwritten autobiographies where players say "the ball hit the net and I felt amazing."

I read Nick Hornby talking about how he watched Arsenal matches to escape his parents' divorce. I also saw Pete Davies interview England players from Italia '90. They said they preferred watching Crossroads over scouting their opponents.

Turns out, football books can actually be brilliant.

10. Only A Game? - Eamon Dunphy (1976)

Dunphy was a midfielder at Millwall, not glamorous Millwall, but 1970s Coldblow Lane Millwall. This diary of his season strips away every romantic notion about professional football.

He sits at home watching TV instead of attending matches because he can't bear hoping his team loses after being dropped. When Millwall tells him they're selling him, he realizes even his house belongs to the club. He's 28, maybe two years left, and owns nothing.

The book shows teammates arguing over tactics, managers making puzzling decisions, and the ongoing worry about money. Dunphy had briefly played at Manchester United with George Best, so he'd tasted glamour before ending up in south London's grimness.

9. All Played Out - Pete Davies (1990)

Davies was a novelist who Bobby Robson invited to live with England's squad at Italia '90. He got access nobody gets—living in the team hotel, interviewing players as humans rather than headline machines.

The result captures World Cup hysteria from the inside: players, hooligans, tabloid journalists, all swept up in the madness.

What's remarkable is how it survives 35 years later. You still feel the tension building toward that semi-final, even knowing England loses on penalties. Davies writes in a laddish style that works because the characters are so vivid—you meet the actual people behind the jerseys.

8. Brilliant Orange - David Winner (2000)

Winner interviews architects and rabbis about Dutch football. Sounds mental, right? But his thesis is brilliant: the Netherlands is tiny and densely populated, so the Dutch obsess over space—how to create it, use it, maximize it.

That obsession shows up in their painting, urban planning, and football. Total Football wasn't just tactics; it was Dutch culture expressed through positioning and movement.

Winner interviews a player who refused to go to the World Cup because his family needed him. Asked if he regretted missing maybe the greatest team in history, the player just says no—his family needed that holiday more.

7. Soccernomics - Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski (2009)

England is half a mid-sized island with 55 million people. Germany has 80 million, Brazil 214 million. Population size predicts football success, along with wealth and how long you've played.

Run the numbers: England should be roughly the 10th best team in the world. Which is exactly where they usually are. England doesn't underperform, we just have delusional expectations because we invented the game 150 years ago.

Kuper and Szymanski crunch data on everything: why hosting World Cups doesn't help much, why massive striker transfers waste money, why Uruguay and Croatia punch above their weight.

6. The Mixer - Michael Cox (2017)

Cox traces Premier League tactics from 1992 to now, showing how each innovation triggers counter-innovations. When Arsène Wenger arrived, English football still played traditional 4-4-2.

He brought continental ideas that forced everyone to adapt. Then Mourinho brought structured pressing. Then Guardiola arrived with his possession obsession, and suddenly everyone's playing out from the back even when it looks suicidal.

Cox explains why Klopp's gegenpressing works, how inverted wingers changed attacking play, why 4-4-2 died (or did it?). He uses specific matches as case studies, making complex concepts clear.

5. Inverting the Pyramid - Jonathan Wilson (2008)

Wilson traces tactics from 1-1-8 formations (yes, one defender, eight forwards—chaos) to today's systems. Why did Italians develop Catenaccio?

How did the Dutch create Total Football? What made Guardiola's Barcelona revolutionary? Wilson has answers backed by meticulous research.

What elevates this beyond a tactical manual is how Wilson connects innovators like Herbert Chapman, Rinus Michels, and Arrigo Sacchi to their cultural contexts. You understand not just what they did but why—how their ideas reflected broader historical moments. It's dense but never boring.

4. How to Win the Premier League - Ian Graham (2024)

Graham was Liverpool's Director of Research—the stats guru behind their recent success. This pulls back the curtain on how modern clubs actually operate.

Graham helped identify Mohamed Salah before he was obvious, figured out which Austrian second-division left-back might be the missing piece, and explained why that big-name striker signing everyone wanted would waste money.

Rarely do we get insight from actual industry experts—most football books come from journalists or players. Graham was in the room crunching numbers that shaped decisions.

3. Goalkeepers Are Different - Brian Glanville (1971)

Glanville's been writing about football for 60 years, but this young adult novel might outlive everything else. It captures that dream every football-mad kid has: what would being a professional actually be like?

The protagonist is ordinary—no natural charisma, no compelling backstory, just a regular lad good at stopping shots.

He faces squad jealousies, manager conflicts, and self-doubt, but also transcendent moments that remind you why anyone does this. The novel builds toward an FA Cup Final, and by then you're as nervous as if your own team were playing.

2. Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby (1992)

Before this, publishers didn't think literate football fans existed. Then Hornby wrote about being an obsessive Arsenal fan, and football literature became legitimate.

But it's not "look at me being quirky"—Hornby treats his obsession as suspect, examining how he used football to escape his parents' divorce, problems with women, and uncertainty about his future.

What Hornby captures is football as safety. Life is complicated, but in the stands at Highbury, surrounded by people in the same colours, you're accepted without question. You don't need to be adequate—just a fan.

1. The Ball is Round - David Goldblatt (2006)

This is the Bible of football history—a massive global history from Victorian England to the 21st century, covering every continent. Goldblatt doesn't just chronicle great teams; he shows how football reflects and shapes societies.

How it spread through British colonialism. How it became political resistance in South America. How dictators weaponized it. How it expressed working-class identity worldwide.

You'll explore Congolese football during Belgian colonial rule. You'll see how football shaped national identities in new African nations. Also, you'll learn about the complex ties between football and European fascism in the 1930s.

Where to Start?

Love tactics? Go for Wilson or Cox. Want to understand your own fandom? Hornby's your man. Curious about the big picture? Goldblatt will blow your mind. Stats obsessed? Graham's got you.

Whatever you choose, you'll have something better to do on Tuesday nights while waiting for the weekend's match. You're welcome.

Benji Kosartiyer
Journalist

Patrick Okoi

SEO Sports Writer

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