About this item
Argentina has produced Alfredo Di Stfano, Diego Maradona, and Lionel Messi - some of the greatest soccer players of all time. The country's rich, volatile history is by turns sublime and ruthlessly pragmatic. A nation obsessed with soccer, Argentina lives and breathes the game, its theories, and its myths. Jonathan Wilson lived in Buenos Aires, in an apartment between La Recoleta Cemetery - where the country's leading poets and politicians are buried - and the Huracn stadium. Like his apartment, Angels with Dirty Faces lies at the intersection of politics, literature, and sport. Here, he chronicles the evolution of Argentinian soccer: the appropriation of the British game, the golden age of la nuestra, the exuberant style of playing that developed as Juan Pern led the country into isolation, a hardening into the brutal methods of anti-ftbol, the fusing of beauty and efficacy under Csar Luis Menotti, and the emergence of all-time greats in Maradona and Messi against a backdrop of economic turbulence.
About the Author
Jonathan Wilson is the editor of the Blizzard and a freelance writer for the Guardian, World Soccer and Sports Illustrated. He is the author of eleven books, including 'Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics', 'Behind the Curtain: Football in Eastern Europe', 'Angels with Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina', 'The Barcelona Legacy' and 'The Names Heard Long Ago'.
