Angels With Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina

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Yet the book’s subtitle, ‘The Footballing History of Argentina’, reveals that the true scope of the book is even greater: Wilson is attempting to tell, at least to some degree, the history of Argentina through the lens of football.

In my view, the last three sections of the book are slightly weaker than what comes before, as they focus (perhaps inevitably) heavily on the stories of Maradona and Messi. It is these stories which explain the ongoing fascination with the unique, flawed phenomenon that is Argentinian football, and it is these stories which will stay with me after reading this book. Wilson’s analysis of how Argentinian football developed is punctuated by humorous and unusual human interest stories, such as that of Imre Hirschl, the Hungarian butcher who somehow ended up leading River Plate to two league titles in the thirties, or of Aldo Pedro Poy, who keeps up an annual tradition of recreating the diving header he scored for Rosario Central in a semi-final in 1971. p. 277: Bielsa: "Soccer rests on four fundamentals, as outlined by Oscar Tabarez: 1) defense; 2) attack; 3) how you move from defense to attack; 4) how you move from attack to defense. Football was first imported to Argentina, as elsewhere, by British immigrants, and Wilson gives prominence to Glaswegian schoolteacher Alexander Watson Hutton in organising structured games which led to the formation of a league in 1891 (making it the oldest football league outside Britain).

Argentina was already competing on the global stage by the 1910s, thwarted by neighbours Uruguay in early Copa America and World Cup finals before beginning to fill their own trophy cabinet. As the title suggests, Argentinian football has often been characterised by the spirit of the ‘Pibe’, which is a picaresque attitude to life (exemplified by a certain player above all). Fully revised and updated, this new edition looks at the contrasting evolution of Argentinian football over the last ten years; from the chaos and violence of the abandoned 2018 Copa Libertadores final between River Plate and Boca Juniors to the revitalised national side under manager Lionel Scaloni, which triumphed at the 2019 Copa América and the 2022 World Cup. Together they explore the questions: People can do unimaginable things to one another—and then what? By 2012 it was only sixtieth, the result of recurrent military rule, political dysfunction and economic crises; in 1978 as the country staged its first and only World Cup to date under the shadow cast by its ruling Junta the New Statesman magazine described its failure as a nation as the greatest political mystery of the 20th century.

For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. Difficult as it is to pit passionate countries against each other, Argentina would hold up its own in beautiful godhood.Walidah Imarisha examines the criminal justice system through multiple lenses, including that of her own experience as a survivor of assault. uk/landing-page/orion/orion-company-information/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Orion Publishing Group Limited. The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.