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The autobiography of Dutch soccer legend Johan Cruyff, whose remarkable life and impeccable style have influenced star players and clubs for decades Johan Cruyff embodied a footballing philosophy that now dominates coaching and playing styles in all the leading club sides around the world. You can dispute whether Cruyff was the greatest player ever -- he was certainly one of the top three -- but he is undoubtedly the player who single-handedly changed the nature of the game. My Turn tells the story of Cruyff's remarkable career, built on the techniques he learned playing in the streets of postwar Amsterdam while hoping to be noticed by the city's famous club, Ajax. He would eventually inspire that team to eight league championships and three European cups. He won his first of three Ballons d'Or at twenty-four in 1971. In 1973, Cruyff was sold to Barcelona for a world-record transfer fee. He led the Catalans to victory in La Liga for the first time since 1960, and went on to leave a lasting mark on Spanish soccer. In the 1974 World Cup, Cruyff propelled the Dutch team to the final for the first time. Cruyff's lasting influence, however, is not in the medals he won, but in the style of play he epitomized and then applied to the Barcelona and Ajax teams he coached. His vision of "Total Football" transformed the way soccer was played, and its dazzling fluidity became the basis of the most admired sides around the world. He was the sport's uncompromising genius on and off the field of play.
Just who was the greatest baseball player of the 20th century—Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron? It's difficult to choose just one of those players over the other three megastars. Then think how really hard it is to pick (and rank) the hundred greatest players of the century, judging and juggling position players, pitchers, active players and retired ones. The authors of this work looked at statistics, the different eras, the “five tools,” and even oral legend in compiling this list of the 100 diamond dandies of the second millennium. They've ranked the Negro League players and superstars from around the globe alongside the Major League legends. Some of their choices may surprise even the most learned fans. Year-by-year playing statistics (if available) are included for all players.
More than any other sport, baseball has developed its own niche in America's culture and psyche. Some researchers spend years on detailed statistical analyses of minute parts of the game, while others wax poetic about its players and plays. Many trace the beginnings of the civil rights movement in part to the Major Leagues' decision to integrate, and the words and phrases of the game (for example, pinch-hitter and out in left field) have become common in our everyday language. From AARON, HENRY onward, this book covers all of what might be called the cultural aspects of baseball (as opposed to the number-rich statistical information so widely available elsewhere). Biographical sketches of all Hall of Fame players, owners, executives and umpires, as well as many of the sportswriters and broadcasters who have won the Spink and Frick awards, join entries for teams, owners, commissioners and league presidents. Advertising, agents, drafts, illegal substances, minor leagues, oldest players, perfect games, retired uniform numbers, superstitions, tripleheaders, and youngest players are among the thousands of entries herein. Most entries open with a topical quote and conclude with a brief bibliography of sources for further research. The whole work is exhaustively indexed and includes 119 photographs.
Following the success of Simon Hughes’ Red Machine and Men in White Suits, books which depicted Liverpool FC’s domination during the 1980s and its subsequent fall in the 1990s, Ring of Fire focuses on the 2000s and the primary characters who propelled Liverpool to the forefront of European football once again. With a foreword by Steven Gerrard, this is the third edition in a bestselling series based on revealing interviews with former players, coaches and managers. For Liverpool FC, entry into the 21st century began with modernisation and trophies under manager Gérard Houllier and development was then underpinned by improbable Champions League glory under Rafael Benítez. Yet that is only half of the story. The decade ended with the club being on the verge of administration after the shambolic reign of American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett. In Ring of Fire, Hughes’ interviewees – including Jamie Carragher, Xabi Alonso and Michael Owen – take you through Melwood’s training ground gates and into the inner sanctum, the Liverpool dressing room. Each person delivers fascinating insights into the minds of the players, coaches and boardroom members as they talk frankly about exhilarating highs and excruciating lows, from winning cups in Cardiff and Istanbul to the political infighting that undermined a succession of managerial reigns. Ring of Fire tells the real stories: those never told before by the key players who lived through it all.
Who will make the cut and become a member of Major League Baseball's All Century Team? Find out in a stunning full-color, oversized coffee table book showcasing the 30 greatest baseball players as voted by fans like you. The book features: 216 pages with more than 250 photographs, many rare or never before published.
Football's Fifty Most Influential Players tells the story of football through its best and most influential players, from the 19th century to the modern day. Most of the 50 are household names--Pele, Charlton, Maradona, Jimmy Hill, Matthews, Best, Zidane, and Messi--and those who aren't certainly deserve to be. You'll read about football's first black superstar Jose Andrade, a 1930 World Cup winner with Uruguay who died in poverty. There's Lily Parr, a Woodbine-smoking behemoth of the women's game who is more famous now than when she died. Then there's Robbie Rogers, the second male footballer in Britain to come out as gay. Though Rogers wasn't a great player, his story will restore some faith after Justin Fashanu's appalling experiences as a gay footballer in the 1980s. Similarly, Jean-Marc Bosman made an indelible mark, not on the pitch but through the courts, changing the way footballers are treated forever. It's not about the stats, tactics, or managers--this is the players' story, from war heroes and match-fixers to superstars and an African president.