Angels with Dirty Faces: How Argentinian Soccer Defined a Nation and Changed the Game Forever

The Masterful, Definitive History of Argentinian Soccer

Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona, Alfredo Di St'fano: in every generation Argentina has uncovered a uniquely brilliant soccer talent. Perhaps it's because the country lives and breathes the game, its theories, and its myths. Argentina's rich, volatile history -- by turns sublime and ruthlessly pragmatic -- is mirrored in the style and swagger of its national and club sides. In Angels with Dirty Faces, Jonathan Wilson chronicles the operatic drama of Argentinian soccer: the appropriation of the British game, the golden age of la nuestra, the exuberant style of playing that developed as Juan Per 3ed the country, a hardening into the brutal methods of anti-f , the fusion of beauty and efficacy under C'sar Luis Menotti, and the emergence of all-time greats.

Praise for Inverting the Pyramid

Here, for the first time in decades, is a top-notch soccer book on how soccer is actually played on the field. -- Simon Kuper

An outstanding work. . . . The soccer book of the decade. -- Sunday Business Post

Author: Jonathan Wilson
Publisher: Bold Type Books
Published: 08/23/2016
Pages: 448
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 8.80h x 5.90w x 1.30d
ISBN13: 9781568585512
ISBN10: 1568585519
BISAC Categories:
- Sports & Recreation | Soccer
- History | Latin America | South America
- Sports & Recreation | History

About the Author
Jonathan Wilson is the author of eight books, including Inverting the Pyramid, which was named NSC Football Book of the Year in 2009 and won the Premio Antonio Ghirelli prize as Italian soccer book of the year in 2013. His books Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football; The Anatomy of England; and The Outsider: A History of the Goalkeeper were shortlisted for the NSC award in 2007, 2011, and 2013. Wilson is the founder and editor of the soccer quarterly the Blizzard, writes for the Guardian, FoxSoccer, and Sports Illustrated, and is a columnist for World Soccer. He was voted Football Writer of the Year by the Football Supporters Federation in 2012.