Fantastic football stories to read between the matches this winter

With the drab, dark nights drawing in and World Cup 2022 fast-approaching, there won't be many things to do except plump yourself down in front of the TV and watch all 64 being played in Qatar. 

However, there will still be some time in between matches across the four weeks to take your eyes away from the TV - and these books all offer the perfect solution to enjoy your downtime away from the games even more. 

The Times World Cup Moments

The ideal gift for the football fan in your family, with 100 iconic pictures and articles

Pairing epic sports photography with articles from The Times and The Sunday Times archive, this book brings together 100 of the most iconic moments from World Cup history, including Roger Milla’s dancing, Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’, Germany’s destruction of Brazil and Luis Suarez sinking his teeth into Giorgio Chiellini.

With some striking, full-colour photography, rarely seen archival images and superb reporting on the action, The Times’ World Cup Moments uncovers the unofficial story of the world’s largest single sporting event as it unfolded on – and off – the pitch.

Featuring the best goals, most historic line-ups, heroic players and unforgettable controversies, these split-second episodes have altered the course of competition history and helped to generate a global sensation along the way.

This book costs £24.45 from Amazon. 

The Silence of the Stands: Finding the Joy in Football’s Lost Season

‘Empathetic and poignant… the game’s answer to A Journal of the Plague Year’ - Harry Pearson

When football disappeared off the calendar due to COVID-19 in March 2020, writer and broadcaster Daniel Gray used its absence to reflect on everything the game meant to him. That bred a pledge: whenever and wherever supporters were finally allowed to return, he would be there.

The Silence of the Stands is the result of that promise: a joyous travelogue documenting a rocky season, in which behind-closed-doors matches and strict travel restrictions teamed up to make trips to Kendal and Workington seem impossibly exotic.

Offering a poignant peek at a surreal age and a slab of social history from the two-metre-distanced tea bar queue, this is the moving, heartfelt and surprisingly uplifting story of a remarkable campaign that no one would ever wish to repeat.

This book costs £11.69 from Bloomsbury. 

Fever Pitch: The Rise of the Premier League 1992-2004

 The incredible first 12 years of the Premier League, as told by the legends who were there 

The Premier League is the most watched sports league in the world, broadcast into 188 countries and watched by 3.2 billion people worldwide. It revolutionised football, transforming the beautiful game into a multi-billion-pound business and making its biggest stars millionaires.

Fever Pitch tells the inside story of the formation of the league, from the early broadcast discussions to the bitter rivalries and radical new managers who changed the face of football forever.

With insight from football's biggest names, this is the inside track on the Premier League as you've never heard it before. From David Beckham to Eric Cantona, Peter Schmeichel to Gary Neville, this book is full of exclusive interviews that give fascinating insight into the biggest sports league in the world from the people who made it happen. Based on the acclaimed BBC Series, with a foreword by Alan Shearer.

This book costs £15 from Amazon. 

Football Murals: A Celebration of Soccer’s Greatest Street Art

‘This book is a work of art about football’s works of art... love it’ - Kevin Day, broadcaster

On tall buildings, street corners and stadium walls around the world, eye-catching murals pay tribute to footballing greats. From Messi and Ronaldo to Rapinoe and Cruyff, these displays are epic testaments to the awe and affection fans feel for these legends and cult heroes.

Join renowned football writer and broadcaster Andy Brassell as he studies this phenomenon. Offering a fresh perspective on the game, Football Murals is the first book to celebrate these epic works of art. 

This ground-breaking account features more than 100 murals from around the world, capturing the scale, grandeur and wit of this powerful and popular art form. Through a series of short essays and captions, Brassell shares the players’ stories, discusses the cultural politics and explains just why these men and women have been immortalised in mural form.

This book costs £18 from Bloomsbury. 

Two Brothers: The life and times of Bobby and Jackie Charlton

 Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2022 

Two Brothers tells the story of a great sporting family, uncovering new details, exposing myths and placing Jack and Bobby Charlton in their historical context. It’s a book about two English footballers but also about English football itself.

In later life the pair didn’t get on and barely spoke, but the lives of these very different brothers from the coalfield epitomise late twentieth-century English football: the tensions between flair and industry, between individuality and collective, between right and left, between middle- and working-classes, between exile and home.

"This is a social history, yet surprisingly moving as it chronicles two remarkable lives." – The Guardian

This book is available from many retailers for £20 or less.

Pep Talk: The Words and Wisdom of the Catalan Master

‘If we lose, we will continue to be the best team in the world. If we win, we will be eternal’  Pep Guardiola

Pep Talk celebrates the greatest witticisms, sayings and insults from the Manchester City boss, accompanied by 20 illustrations of the man himself.

Josep Pep Guardiola is widely regarded the No.1 football coach in the world. Having orignally been unearthed as a player by Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff, he was part of the Blaugrana’s ‘dream team’ of the 1990s that won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994 and the 1992 European Cup.

As manager at the Camp Nou he bagged another 14 honours before taking the reins at Bayern Munich, and in 2016 he joined City where he has won a further four Premier League crowns.

This is the perfect stocking filler, packed with aphorism and one-liners from the ultimate ‘philosopher-football manager’.

This book costs £8.99 from Waterstones. 

Don Revie: The Biography

Shortlisted for The Sunday Times Sports Book Awards 2022

Whenever the greatest managers football has ever produced are mentioned, Busby, Shankly, Paisley and Ferguson trip off the tongue. Despite dominating the game in the 1960s and ’70s there is one key name missing: Don Revie, the former Leeds and England boss.

He was one of the most complex and controversial men ever to grace the game. As a player, he was crowned Footballer of the Year and credited with creating the modern centre-forward. As a manager, he turned second-tier Leeds into one of the country’s most fearsome outfits.

Featuring new interviews with Johnny Giles, Kevin Keegan, Joe Jordan, Norman Hunter, Eddie Gray, Malcolm Macdonald, Allan Clarke and members of the Revie family, this long-overdue biography reveals how today’s football owes so much to him.

This book costs £11.69 from Bloomsbury.

1966

This lavish title was the only official book to commemorate the 50th anniversary of England’s greatest victory

Telling the complete story of the 1966 World Cup is a beautiful, coffee-table book, presented in a souvenir real cloth slipcase with gold foil lettering. It shows off previously unseen photography, items of memorabilia and special documents uncovered at the FA’s own archive at Wembley Stadium.

This thorough and entertaining narrative of the tournament also includes memories of many key protagonists in the success – from the players and management to celebrities, supporters, reporters and commentators. 

With a foreword by hat-trick hero, Sir Geoff Hurst (who has also signed Collectors’ Editions now available from the publisher), 1966 is a wonderful reminder of a golden spell in English history… a never-to-be-forgotten month in a summer when England were on top of the world.

This book costs £30 from Vision Sports Publishing.