The History of the World in 12 Soccer Matches

Soccer has always intersected with history--sometimes during an anonymous match, sometimes in a major world final--because, from the sport's beginning in 1848, echoes of what's happening off the pitch have reached the global playing field in unthinkable ways. Soccer can spark a war but it can also have the opposite effect: interrupting conflict, even just for a few hours or days.

For example, the story that begins this book: When French, Belgian, English and German World War I soldiers climbed out of their foxholes to kick the ball around with their enemies for a brief few hours during a Christmas Truce.

This is just one of 12 matches the book covers. Others include the game between Dinamo Zagreb and the Red Star Belgrade in Croatia in 1990, when clashes between fans and police made it clear that Yugoslavia was about to have a bloody split. Or Chile vs. the USSR in 1973, held in Santiago, Chile, shortly after Augusto Pinochet took over in a bloody coup, and in the very stadium where he'd imprisoned, tortured, and murdered thousands of political prisoners. The hometeam won by scoring on an empty goal -- the Soviets had refused to take the field in protest.

Alternating between journalism and first-hand accounts from the protagonists, this work invites us to look at our past and present from a new point of view. Because, beyond what we may think, sometimes history happens while someone, somewhere, is kicking a ball around.