Calling all soccer buffs: you can't miss this one and only official guide to the world's biggest, most popular sports event Packed with photos, it offers expert analysis of each team, its star players, and its prospects in the finals, along with information on the stadiums and host cities. Fans can fill in the tournament progress chart as the games advance whether they're the lucky ones watching live in Brazil or following them at home."

Nothing equals the sporting spectacle of the World Cup! This FIFA-endorsed guide, the only official one aimed at younger readers, contains everything kids need to become experts on the thrilling competition. Informative and accessible, it includes easy-to-follow team analyses of all 32 finalists, star player profiles, outstanding big match photographs, puzzles, games, fill-ins, and an introduction to Fuleco, the match mascot.

One of the Boston Globe’s Best Sports Books of the Year: “Incisive, heartbreaking, important and even funny” (Jeremy Schaap, New York Times–bestselling author of Cinderella Man). The people of Brazil celebrated when it was announced that they were hosting the World Cup—the world’s most-viewed athletic tournament—in 2014 and the 2016 Summer Olympics. But as the events were approaching, ordinary Brazilians were holding the country’s biggest protest marches in decades. Sports journalist Dave Zirin traveled to Brazil to find out why. In a rollicking read that travels from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the fabled Maracanã Stadium to the halls of power in Washington, DC, Zirin examines Brazilians’ objections to the corruption of the games they love; the toll such events take on impoverished citizens; and how taking to the streets opened up an international conversation on the culture, economics, and politics of sports. “Millions will enjoy the World Cup and Olympics, but Zirin justly reminds readers of the real human costs beyond the spectacle.” —Kirkus Reviews

Celebrates the history of soccer in Brazil, from its introduction into the nation in the 1870s through the present, and offers commentary on the cultural importance of the game while profiling superstar teams, players, and managers.

"In time for Brazil's hosting of the 2014 World Cup, this book uses the stories of star players and other key figures (based on over 40 interviews) to create a contemporary history of Brazilian soccer from the 1950s to the present. It also explores race and class tensions in Brazil and shows how soccer is central to the country's dramatic trajectory toward modernity and economic power"--

Brazil has done much to shape football/soccer, but how has soccer shaped Brazil? Despite the political and social importance of the beautiful game to the country, the subject has hitherto received little attention. This book presents groundbreaking work by historians and researchers from Brazil, the United States, Britain and France, who examine the political significance, in the broadest sense, of the sport in which Brazil has long been a world leader. The authors consider questions such as the relationship between soccer, the workplace and working class culture; the formation of Brazilian national identity; race relations; political and social movements; and the impact of the sport on social mobility. Contributions to the book range in time from the late nineteenth century, when the British first introduced the sport to Brazil, to the present day, as the 'country of soccer' prepares itself to host the 2014 World Cup, painting a vivid picture of the many ways in which soccer exists and functions in Brazil, both on and off the pitch.

In anticipation of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, this celebration of Brazil's football obsession captures every angle of the game, the players, and the fans of the most beautiful game on earth. Having photographed football in Brazil for two decades, no one understands the country's passion for the sport better than Christopher Pillitz. From Brazil's sun-kissed beaches to its densely populated favelas, Pillitz reveals the sport as Brazil's religion. His bold and brightly colored photographs show players of every age and walk of life. They take readers from enormous stadiums and prison yards to the tops of tall buildings and a deep-sea oil platform; across countless streets, alleys, and highways; even inside a local seminary where longrobed monks display incredible agility playing in their cassocks. While he captures stylish kicks, athletic headers, swaying dribbles and passes, and the samba and capoeira behind the incredible moves, Pillitz also shows us the wild excitement of the colorful, eccentric fans, and, of course, he reveals the gentle side of the beautiful game--the many women footballers and fans who enjoy the sport as much as their male counterparts. Timed to coincide with Brazil's hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, this absorbing and thrilling collection will help new and seasoned fans understand what football truly represents to the country's people and its culture.

This is the ultimate reference book on the World Cup, with match-by-match articles featuring the biggest names in world football, plus results from every game played. All the statistics are here in one volume, enough to satisfy the most avid of World Cup fans, including team line-ups, goalscorers, stadiums, referees, crowd figures and exact dates, plus an authoritative records and statistics section, as well as detailed reports of every game played in the finals. From the brilliant Italian team, winners in 1934, and Geoff Hurst's hat-trick for England in 1966 to the fabulous Brazilian team of Pele, Tostao and Jairzinho of 1970, and the 1998 French side of Zidane, Deschamps and Desailly, all the fabulous memories and defining moments are captured in this one book. As well as the facts and feats, this book contains archive photographs of some of the most memorable images of football's greatest tournament.

No nation is as closely identified with the game of soccer as Brazil. For over a century, Brazil’s people, politicians, and poets have found in soccer the finest expression of the nation’s collective potential. Since the team’s dazzling performance in 1938 at the World Cup in France, Brazilian soccer has been revered as an otherworldly blend of the effective and the aesthetic. Futebol Nation is an extraordinary chronicle of a nation that has won the World Cup five times and produced players of miraculous skill, such as Pelé, Garrincha, Rivaldo, Zico, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho. It shows why the phrase O Jogo Bonito—the Beautiful Game—has justly entered the global lexicon. Yet there is another side to Brazil and its game, one that reflects the harsh sociological realities of the “futebol nation.” David Goldblatt explores the grinding poverty that creates a vast pool of hungry players, Brazil’s corrupt institutions exemplified by its soccer authorities, and the pervasive violence that has seeped onto the field and into the stands. Futebol Nation illuminates both Brazilian soccer and Brazil itself; its brilliance, its magic, its style, and the fabulous myths that have been constructed around it; as well as its tragedies, its miseries, and its economic and political injustices. It is the story of Brazil told through its chosen national game.

Through the lens of Brazil's trademark sport, reporter Alex Bellos brings us a fascinating portrait of Brazilian identity. When Brazil won the World Cup in 2002, the secret was out: the Brazilian soccer team is one of the modern wonders of the world. In this fascinating portrait of Brazilian identity, Alex Bellos brings to life not just a sport, but an entire country. With an unerring eye for a good story and a marvelous ear for the voices of the people he meets, Alex Bellos uncovers what Ronaldo called the "true truth" about Brazilian soccer.