Product Description

Puskas of Hungary in the '50s; Pele of Brazil and Gianni Rivera of Italy in the '60s; Platini of France in the '70s; Diego Maradona of Argentina in the '80s; Baggio and Zidane in the '90s - the most magical, supremely talented footballers of the post-war period have all worn the Number 10 shirt. Puskas presided over the regal Real Madrid side that won five consecutive European Cups between 1955 and 1960 and like his fellow number 10s in the football hall of fame and infamy, shares the uncanny ability to transcend the role of mere 'player'. The terms 'inside forward', 'playmaker' or 'fantasista' fail to capture the instinct for genius that characterises all great Number 10s. In ten mini-biographical essays on some of the greatest players the world has ever seen Richard Williams explores the astonishing creative influence of the most celebrated players to wear the shirt and recreates some of the most memorable moments witnessed on a football field.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #513534 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-04
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

98% fluff with only 2% of mildly interesting reading
Rubbish. After a promising beginning all about the uniqueness and beauty of the No. 10, he talks hardly anything in the following chapters about what made these particular players great No. 10s! He spends too much time talking about the history of the club the player belonged to, and expressing his glorified journalistic view of the key matches mentioned in the book. Also, too much of the writing is mixed with completely irrelevant, BORING, commentary on the political state at the time of the player. It's just fluff.

The book shows a particular lack of respect to Zidane, voted in a poll by UEFA as the best player in the last 50 years and only 1 of 2 to ever win the FIFA world player of the year 3 times, the other being Ronaldo. He clearly doesn't truly understand football, only his romanticized version, and hence provides no illustration of why people saw Zinidine Zidane as different, special, and why his play was beautiful. Many of the key moments, and more importantly key matches, are astonishingly and rudely overlooked by someone who clearly shows he is an amateur in real football knowledge, a noob romantic full of cliches and a follower of other's opinions.

But worst of all, from a neutral reader's perspective and a general, average football fan, this book is boring. And majorly over-fluffed - 98% fluff with only 2% of mildly interesting reading. There seems to be no attempt to capture the excitement of momentous footballing occasions, and more importantly, the momentous goals produces in those occasions.

Another minor criticism is that he doesn't distinguish between the greats and the good, hardly going into any detail at all about the poorer side of a player's abilities, notably Dennis Bergkamp.

Overall, a waste of time, and exactly why I hate overdramatic, always-romanticizing, typical english ignorant, journalistic style writing. Keep it to the newspaper columns because I can't digest more than 2 paragraphs of this rubbish. You will learn and appreciate much more of these players by visiting youtube, and reading about them on wikipedia and various articles on the web.

Something more than a game of two halves
As a regular consumer of football-related books I wasn't expecting too much from this one, thinking it might just be a re-working of oft-quoted anecdotes, facts and figures about the great playmakers of the game. After all, how much new is there to say about Pelé? The book is organised into ten chapters with one per player (except in one case where two share) in chronological order. Of course you can always argue about the choice of player and there is indeed some familiar material, but also a lot of interesting insights particularly when delving into the less explored characters, such as Gianni Rivera, Gunther Netzer and Enzo Francescoli. Where possible however the author takes us beyond the pitch to the person and tries to reveal something of their philosophy. He searches for a link between the person and their play. He tries to find the underlying motivation for the creativity, style and even behaviour on the field. This is perhaps best illustrated by the example of Roberto Baggio and his Buddhist beliefs. Maybe with some players he tries to find what is not there, but if you want some good, solid, well-written football history with the addition of something a bit more insightful then you will really enjoy this book. If you just want to know a bit more about some of the best players ever then you won't be disappointed either.

An enjoyable, informative read
I rather enjoyed this. The author's enthusiasm for his subjects is obvious, and he certainly knows his football. An excellent choice of players too. Recommended.