SOCCEROLOGY

A fan’s history of soccer including both highlights and lowlights, plus notes on the evolution of its rules, gear, and inclusivity.

Endeavoring to encompass “the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly,” Sylvester kicks off with the modern game’s predecessors from 1600 BCE on and brings underwater soccer, blind soccer, and even foosball into the fold. Readers accustomed to sunnier pictures of the beautiful game are in for a few surprises. In the course of chronicling the sport’s rise to become so popular and ubiquitous that even the Vatican fields both men’s and women’s teams, the author notes how women were repeatedly banned and unbanned (from professional play, anyway). While he salutes the first Black, female, and Indigenous pro players, he also acknowledges the continuing racial and gender disparity between team members and team owners and officials. In snapshot accounts of significant games, he also mixes heroic performances with major incidents of cheating and other scandals. Still, Sylvester’s tone and outlook are positive overall, and he brings his overview to an upbeat ending with tallies of personal, team, and “weird” records, plus a helpfully annotated set of sources and soccer resources. Diverse groups of generic or mildly caricatured players and fans crowd or charge energetically across nearly every page.

Scores for frankness as well as scope.