Books & Poetry

The World Cup is the planet’s most flamboyant flaunting of national identities. This year we’ve already seen a French side divided by in-fighting, an all-white Dutch side from a country with a rising right wing, and Serbia & Montenegro representing a nation that will soon cease to exist. ‘The Thinking Fan’s Guide to the World Cup’ is an ambitious attempt to go beyond the usual intellect-light footy books and lay bare the participating country’s cultural psyches, via a good old kickaround.

Each nation is represented by an article from a literary figure, among them Dave Eggers, Eric Schlosser, Geoff Dyer and, inevitably, Nick Hornby. The result is a scattershot but largely fascinating series of pieces that challenge the standard stereotypes, with the addition of statistics covering everything from oil price ratios to the FIFA World Players Of The Year.

England fans who tout an irrational animosity towards Germany should read East German Aleksander Hemon’s touching memoir of his hatred of the West German side when the Soviet East was its whipping boy on and off the pitch. By contrast, though a welcome return to his roots, Nick Hornby’s piece on England is overly familiar. Best of the lot is Henning Mankell’s virtuoso performance on (strangely) Angola. Mankell manages to shame the patronising TV commentary to remind us why some of the greatest ever footballing nations have also been the most traumatised. ‘The war never killed soccer in Angola,’ writes Mankell. ‘The soccer fields were demilitarised zones, and the face-off between teams conducting an intense yet essentially friendly battle served as a defense against the horrors that raged all around.’

‘A funny old game’ just doesn’t do the sport justice.