Given the enthusiasm generated by the Supporters Pack (which we mentioned in our last two newsletters) which sold out in just 2 months, we thought we could try putting the books from our So Foot collection on our store, some of which were released in the early 2010s.
And judging by the reception they're getting—that is, how quickly they're selling out—we think we made the right decision. We should definitely review them so that those who missed out will hurry and grab their copy before they're gone.
So Foot books:
It's the hit of November. We managed to get 400 copies of our book "Maradona: Mad, Brilliant, and Legendary" from our publisher, copies that were slated for pulping. And since then, about a hundred have already been sold. It has to be said that the back cover of this 192-page book is quite enticing:
"Brilliant, cunning, facetious, elusive, liar, childish, controversial, angelic, touching, diabolical, contradictory, loudmouth, sensitive, heroic, pathetic, iconic, technical, populist, mad, selfish, paternalistic, annoying, misunderstood, adored, passionate, immortal... And legendary.
Diego Armando Maradona is all of that at once, but prefers to define himself as a man who sells dreams. Like this book which, through previously unpublished accounts from those who have known him from his childhood to the present day, retraces like never before the journey of the eternal enfant terrible of world football history.
It's also 192 pages long, presented as a large and beautiful book, but Diego doesn't appear in it. Because it deals with football in the 70s. You will find there: the clockwork oranges, the Greens, the Khmer Rouge, Pink Floyd, the square posts, Mike Brant, Johan Cruyff, Star Wars, the Kaiser, C Jérôme, George Best, afro hairstyles, the Bastia epic, Georges Marchais, Gérard Janvion, the Concorde, Antonin Panenka, the oil race, Zaire 74, Bruce Lee, Gerd Müller, Bob Marley, the Revelli brothers, the pie-crust collars, Ajax, Jacques Mesrine, Jean-Pierre Adams, the Renault 5, Jairzinho, Watergate, Dino Zoff, Farrah Fawcett, Brazil 70... Hippies then punk, well-groomed then long-haired, the seventies were feverish like John Travolta's Saturday nights and at least as mythical as Dominique Rocheteau. Who, like the good green angel he is, prefaces this essential and crazy book with a series of Chaudron-style blows.
Published a few years before the book on the 1970s, "So Foot 80's: Champagne Football & Glitter Parties" tackles, contrary to what its title might suggest, the transition from a classy football inherited from the utopian ideals of '68 (Telê Santana's Brazil) to a football wallowing in the vulgarity of Berlusconi, money, glitz, and personal success. The backdrop includes: "politics" (the end of the Soviet bloc and major Eastern European teams like Steaua Bucharest and Dynamo Kyiv), violence (the rise of hooliganism with the Heysel Stadium disaster, skinhead culture), the media (the all-powerful television of the Téléfoot era, the creation of Canal+, Berlusconi in Italy and France with the now-defunct La Cinq), and a touch of national pride: Platini's Les Bleus were the first major French team to start winning (1982, 1984, 1986).
Published in 2015, our book on the 90s is a story of football's endless possibilities… The rise and fall of Olympique de Marseille . The advent of Paris Saint-Germain, Canal+ era . The 1994 World Cup in the United States (without France, but with Bulgaria). The great Juventus team. The rebirth of Real Madrid. The creation of the Champions League (with group stages). As well as the rise of sportswear manufacturers (and neon jerseys), television, and business too… Not forgetting: Hristo Stoichkov , Tomas Brolin , the Fugees, Bernard Tapie, floppy disks, Silvio Berlusconi, the Nantes style of play , overalls, the Brazilian players at PSG , The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , Windows 95, Kangol berets, Street Fighter II , the golden goal, Roberto Baggio , Heartbreak High , the Ballon d'Or, and Jean-Pierre Papin's porn films, etc., etc., etc. The list of what made the 90s so great is at least as long as the mullet of the legendary Tony Vairelles . Who, quite naturally, wrote the foreword to this mythical book.
After reviving the 70s, 80s, and 90s, it was only natural that we tackled the turn of the century by dedicating a beautiful book to this period which saw the rise of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Barça and Spain playing tiki-taka, and José Mourinho becoming the Special One. But that's not all.
Loana and Jean-Edouard in the pool, Kaka, Facebook, the Nokia 3210, the Star Academy castle, the thong showing, Marc-Vivien Foé, Prison Break, Las Ketchup, Shevchenko, the subprime mortgage crisis, Juninho's free kicks, Hurricane Katrina, Toifilou Maoulida's bandages, the SARS epidemic, Pedro Miguel Pauleta, the tsunami in Thailand, Paris Hilton's sex tape, the World Trade Center towers, Marco Materazzi, Skyblog, YouPorn, Platini as president, the GameCube, Michael Owen, Kill Bill, Shaggy, Thierry Henry's handball, H1N1, Bin Laden, Fabio Cannavaro, Von Dutch caps, MSN, the AZF factory explosion, George W. Bush, Windows XP. A book guaranteed bug-free.
Who knows Eduard Streltsov, the Russian Pelé sent to the gulag before the 1958 World Cup? Who has heard of Magico Gonzalez, the Salvadoran legend who managed the feat of being named to the 1982 World Cup All-Star Team despite losing every match? Why doesn't Egil Olsen ring a bell, given that, as Norway's coach, he built the most... boring team in history?
Forgotten Heroes of the World Cup revisits the most famous sporting competition with the demanding yet enjoyable tone that has made our magazine, So Foot, so renowned. It evokes Brazil in 1970 through the story of João Saldanha, a communist and gun enthusiast, who revitalized the Seleção before the World Cup only to be dismissed by the Junta three months before their departure for Mexico and their eventual triumph. It also recounts the American dream through the surprise victory of the US national team over the English giants in 1950.
Cheating, doping, summer romances, shattered lives, small epics, and great absences. You may never have read these stories, but don't panic: they're all here.
Who said, "Some people think football is a matter of life or death. I can assure them it's much more important than that"? Or, "I'm not the best in the world, but I believe no one is better than me"? To find out, it only costs €6. The price of our little green book, an anthology of football quotes in over 200 iconic sayings. This is a reissue in paperback!
We began this literary review with Maradona, and we conclude it with... Zinédine Zidane. Graceful, discreet, unassuming, fiery, otherworldly, shy, violent, idolized, patriotic, brilliant, amorous, presidential material, ethereal, humble, loyal, clannish, fascinating, apolitical, a mutant, a leader, mercantile, hardworking, paternal, strategic, prudent, endearing, generous, melancholic, a leader, immortal… Yazid is all of these things at once, but prefers to remain silent rather than define himself. Quite the opposite of this book, which, through previously unpublished articles and collector's photographs, retraces like never before the journey of the son of immigrants from the northern housing projects of Marseille who became the greatest player-coach in the history of world football. You will learn everything about Zizou.
All these books and works are available in limited editions.
First come, first served!