A decent read which should have omitted the final chapter on the American game, as it really had nothing to add to the discussion.

I read this on the plane to watch the World Cup in South Africa. It was a nice little history lesson and Foer met with some really interesting people during his research. I suggest it to anyone interested in both soccer and global relations. Otherwise, I don't think it would hold your interest.

This book just doesn't age particularly well, but probably provides a good start for someone interested in the more cultural side of soccer.

I'm a little bit disappointed after reading this book. While there are good connections between football (yes, I choose to call it that) and events in societies and countries around the world, there doesn't seem to be much of an explanation but rather correlation or at best causation. The style of writing is good and capturing, but each section and chapter just left me waiting for the real punchline or some sort of pointer on how/where things were going, but there were no predictions or anything there. Good read, but still slightly disappointing.

Foer definitely leaves the best for last in this book. I was expecting to read something that was more cohesive, rather than multiple studies of soccer in various nation-states. The book feels a bit disjointed for having been written in that style. That said, each foray into the respective country's culture surrounding soccer sheds very interesting light on a number of late 20th and early 21st century political dilemmas. Among the more interesting were the discussions of Irish fans' still entrenched anti-papist stances, the explanations of Italian oligarchs, and the subtle Catalonian nationalism that underlies the Barca fandom.

Some of the chapters are quite a bit longer than necessary, and drag. But others are pithy and carried by strong narratives and quirky characters, which make the book move along more swiftly. The best two chapters come at the end, when Foer explains the internal conflict between secular Iranian nationalism and the more religious state favored by Iranian leadership, and the American divide over soccer as it represents a class war. Reading this in early 2017 is particularly interesting in that respect.

I would've liked an epilogue like the prologue, tying the various disparate arguments together in more detail. The book feels like a series of chapters which barely speak to one another, and a final chapter which ties it together would've made it stronger. That said, this is a quick read, and as I explained to the woman on the airplane who asked if I was a soccer player, it's a way to read a book ostensibly about sports that is actually about things I find more compelling. :)

3.5 stars. This was very readable and mostly enjoyable, but with caveats.
Foer's blithe USA-centric blinkers were annoying at times (especially in the Iran chapter) but it's pretty representative of a certain kind of early-2000 optimistic liberal mindset I guess.
Also frustrating was the absolute unwillingness to call Ukranian football's blatant racism by what it is, the author instead arguing that it's some quaint sort of folkloric nationalist impulse unlike racism in western Europe (even while highlighting the continuity of primate/banana tropes used against Black footballers).
Still worth a read, enjoyed the chapters on Serbian football and Jewishness in football the most, but with critical faculties intact.

“Soccer is an anthropologist’s dream” remains one of my favorite quotes and this book just furthers that theory :!)

If you think sports and politics have nothing to do with each other you are gravely mistaken and this would be a great place to start. Foer's love for the sport shines through his analysis of global politics without imposing a singular view of any particular conflict.

Feels a little outdated. Would be interested in reading about how soccer has changed in the last 10 years from when this book was published.