Soccer fans worldwide love nothing more than to cheer their team to victory over their most heated rival. Soccer rivalries take many forms, from international duels between countries down to local grudge matches between clubs who share the same city. This title introduces readers to some of the top rivalries in the world, explaining how they began and why they are still important today. The title features informative sidebars, exciting photos, a glossary, and an index. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

While rivalry is embedded in any sporting event or performance, soccer, the world’s most popular mass spectator sport, has been an emblem of such rivalries since its inception as an organized sport. Some of these rivalries grow to become long-term and perennial by their nature, extent, impact and legacy, from the local to the global level. They represent identities based on widely diverse affiliations of human life—locality, region, nation, continent, community, class, culture, religion, ethnicity, and so on. Yet, at times, such rivalries transcend barriers of space and time, where soccer-clubs, -nations, -personalities, -organizations, -styles and -fans float and compete with intriguing identities. The present volume brings into focus some of the most fascinating and enduring rivalries in the world of soccer. It attempts to encapsulate, analyse and reconstruct those rivalries—between nations, between clubs, between personalities, between styles of play, between fandoms, and between organizations—in a historical perspective in relation to diverse identities, competing ideologies, contestations of power, psychologies of attachment, bonds of loyalty, notions of enmity, articulations of violence, and affinities of fan culture—some of the core manifestations of sporting rivalry. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Soccer & Society.

The most popular sport in the world is guaranteed to have its fair share of rivalries. Does winning a World Cup make a team the best? Or does Olympic gold deserve the glory? Discover some of soccer's biggest rivalries past and present and decide for yourself who's the best.

Whether it's a great championship match, a historic upset, a legendary performance, or a nail-biting finish, some soccer matches live forever in the memories of fans. This title introduces readers to some of the greatest matches in the sport's history, as well as the players and teams at the center of these dramatic moments. The title features informative sidebars, exciting photos, a glossary, and an index. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

While the players on the field receive most of the glory, soccer managers can often be the difference between winning and losing through their decisions before and during matches. This title introduces readers to some of the most influential managers the sport has seen, from tactical innovators to master motivators, all of whom have left a lasting impact on the world's most popular sport. The book features informative sidebars, exciting photos, a glossary, and an index. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Boca-River, Red Star-Partizan, Lazio-Roma, Celtic-Rangers, England-Scotland, Racing Club-Velez, Hamburg-St.Pauli, Glentoran-Linfield, Feyenoord-Ajax, Ireland-Northern Ireland, Inter-Milan, Genoa-Sampdoria, Real Madrid-Barcelona, Sporting-Benfica, Birmingham-Villa. A journey through some big football rivalries that simply mean more than a game to a lot of people.Think of your local school rivalry as a kid and times it by a million, to get some of the raw passion of these games.Bigotry, pyro, tifo and mayhem accompany most of them. Being struck by baguettes in Madrid, blocks of ice in Buenos Aires and covered in beer in Rotterdam.This is a story of chasing match tickets, hitchhiking, cancelled games and relying on cheap flights and plenty of booze.It's all here an

‘A history of modern Spain told through one of world football's most intense rivalries’ Independent ‘Sports Book of the Year’ Sunday Times It’s Messi vs Ronaldo, it’s Catalonia vs Castilla. It’s the nation against the state, freedom fighters vs Franco’s fascists. It’s majestic goals and mesmerising skills, red cards and bench brawls. It’s the best two teams on the planet going face to face and toe to toe. It’s more than a game. It’s a war. It’s Barcelona vs Real Madrid. Only, it’s not that simple. From the wounds left by the civil war to the teams’ recent global domination, historian and expert on Spanish football, Sid Lowe lifts the lid on sport’s greatest rivalry. Lowe has spoken to the biggest names and the forgotten heroes who defined their clubs. Men like Alfredo Di Stéfano and Johan Cruyff as well as the only survivor of the most politically charged game in history, the Barcelona striker who knocked Madrid out of the European Cup for the first time ever, and the president who celebrated his club’s defining moment by taking a midnight dip in the Thames. By exploring the history, politics, culture, economics and language, while never forgetting the drama on the pitch, Lowe demonstrates the symbiotic nature of the relationship between these two football giants. In doing so he reveals the human story behind this explosive rivalry.