The Beautiful Game / Romain Molina

Information

Date:

Exuvie Editions
November 2020

Author:

Romain Molina

Additional Info

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME: FOOTALL, WAR AND POLITICS

Rights Holder: Exuvie
Original Language: French

Football is merely a pretext for this book which was really written to offer a humanistic approach to this collection of improbable anecdotes mixing geopolitics, football, society and human drama.

As the most televised sport in the world, football has always been used for power. Where economic, political, diplomatic and social interests converge, it has been used by different regimes as a supposedly unifying force under the complicit watch of FIFA.

From Guatemala to Nepal, from Fidel Castro to the Khmer Rouge by way of Saddam Hussein’s eldest son, The Beautiful Game retraces the intertwined fates of players and coaches set off in pursuit of a ball despite the presence of exile, genocide, war or torture.

Like a travel journal, with illustrations at the start of each chapter, Romain Molina takes us on his journey around the world to countries far from the spotlight of the business that is football — Iraq, Yemen, Indonesia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Cambodia — where football is definitely more than a sport.

Romain Molina writes the stories of these heroes living in the shadows, running despite themselves head first into danger; behind their passions often hide tragedy.

Romain Molina is the author of now six books about football. Originally from France, Romain lived in Scotland, England and now Andalusia. He is a freelance journalist who writes for The New York Times, CNN, BBC and Le Temps.

His Youtube channel has over 83 000 subscribers.

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