Description

‘EPIC’ Financial Times
‘PERCEPTIVE’ The Sunday Times
‘BLISSFUL’ Daily Telegraph
‘FASCINATING’ Independent on Sunday
‘TERRIFIC’ Henry Winter
‘EXCELLENT’ Simon Kuper

The fascinating story of football in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, from the award-winning author of Inverting the Pyramid

From the war-ravaged streets of Sarajevo, where turning up for training involved dodging snipers’ bullets, to the crumbling splendour of Budapest’s Bozsik Stadium, where the likes of Puskas and Kocsis masterminded the fall of England, the landscape of Eastern Europe has changed immeasurably since the collapse of communism. Jonathan Wilson has travelled extensively behind the old Iron Curtain, viewing life beyond the fall of the Berlin Wall through the lens of football.

Where once the state-controlled teams of the Eastern bloc passed their way with crisp efficiency – a sort of communist version of total football – to considerable success on the European and international stages, today the beautiful game in the East has been opened up to the free market, and throughout the region a sense of chaos pervades. The threat of totalitarian interference no longer remains; but in its place mafia control is generally accompanied with a crippling lack of funds.

Jonathan Wilson goes in search of the spirit of Hungary’s ‘Golden Squad’, charts the disintegration of the footballing superpower Yugoslavia, follows a sorry tale of corruption, mismanagement and Armenian cognac through the Caucasuses, reopens the case of Russia’s greatest footballer, Eduard Streltsov, and talks to Jan Tomaszewski about an autumn night at Wembley in 1973…

BEHIND THE CURTAIN is the definitive story of football in Eastern Europe.

Publisher Review

Epic… Wilson writes captivatingly with humour… anyone with an interest in eastern European sport will be consulting this book for years to come. * Financial Times * A blissful book, lovingly and stylishly written * Daily Telegraph * With style and erudition, [Wilson] proves that football is a metaphor, an allegory, and much more than just a game * The Times * There’s everything you needed to know about football and plenty that you didn’t… wittily observed travel writing. * When Saturday Comes * This fascinating and perceptive travelogue includes a fine collection of anecdotes too colourful for fiction. * The Sunday Times * A terrific book * Henry Winter * Football is centred squarely within a fascinating socio-political context… There is plenty of humour too. * Independent on Sunday * Compelling… he [Wilson] succeeds in going well beyond the lurid headlines, skilfully interweaving his own travel notes with forays into politics, culture and history. * FourFourTwo * Enlightening * The Scotsman * An intriguing, entertaining history-cum-sports travelogue. * Metro * Wilson knows an immense amount about eastern European football and has crammed a lot into 300 pages. He writes well and has a lot of good stories. * The Guardian * As absorbing as any post-war spy thriller. * Sunday Life * Engrossing and funny travelogue-cum-social history * Glasgow Evening Times * Jonathan Wilson brilliantly plugs the gaps in our knowledge…an observant and witty guide to life in Eastern Europe. * Waterstones Books Quarterly * It’s a book that had to be written. Excellent. * Simon Kuper, author of FOOTBALL AGAINST THE ENEMY * With style and erudition, [Wilson] proves that football is a metaphor, an allegory, and much more than just a game * THE TIMES * Enlightening * THE SCOTSMAN *