From his start on an amateur club in Buenos Aires to his brilliant career with Real Madrid and Argentina's National Team, Gonzalo "Pipita" Higuaín has guaranteed his place among soccer's leading lights. His career is still on the rise, yet Higuaín already ranks among the top 20 all-time goal scorers for Real Madrid, Spain's most fabled club. And as a result of his stellar performance with Argentina's National Team, he is recognized as one of the greatest sportsmen in all of Latin America. A monumental force of will has characterized Gonzalo Higuaín since his childhood. Positive and disciplined, he has overcome many difficulties on the way to the top of his profession. And the final pages of Higuaín's story have yet to be written. Many soccer fans expect that Pipita's greatest work is still to come.

The book is the result of an idea conceived in 2006 and the writing itself begun in October 2007 and took almost two years. Sources for the project, which included official FIFA publications were numerous and varied. These together with other publications and studies published by other authors that proved to be of great use were consulted and are listed in the Bibliography. An essential guide for the 2010 World Cup and beyond, The Story Has Been Told traces the idea of a World Cup from its conception, inception and how it has evolved over the years as an event to what has become a multibillion-dollar spectacle.

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger is a book of inspirational stories from Australian A-League football star Archie Thompson that shares his love of the game and his family through the highs and lows. What does it take to become a success on or off the field? How can setbacks make you stronger? Where do you find guidance on the road to the top? Archie Thompson is one of Australia's best loved footballers, a ten-year veteran of the Socceroos and marquee player for the A-League's power club, Melbourne Victory. Football fans love the way Archie plays with a smile on his face and this book, like the man himself, is straight-shooting. He writes on everything from the importance of discipline and loyalty to how to build confidence in yourself and overcome life's challenges while enjoying the good times. His stories will inspire anyone who plays sport or wants to make a difference in life. Archie tells how he has been inspired by legendary teammates like Harry Kewell and friend Tim Cahill and guided by some of the greats in the game. But as he explains, the drive to become the best you can be is found within.Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ0T7murgro

Ossie Ardiles is one of the most iconic footballers ever to have graced the game. After winning the World Cup with Argentina in 1978, Ossie became the first foreign player to make an impact in England, paving the way for the modern era of multinational teams. and was immortalised in Chas & Dave's hit record "Ossie's Dream (Spurs Are On Their Way to Wembley)".

In that unforgettable 1981 FA Cup Final, the silky skills of Ossie and fellow Argentine midfielder Ricky Villa inspired Spurs to their famous victory over Man City. He also helped Spurs to retain the trophy the following year, and to win the UEFA Cup in 1984, and even found time to star in the classic football film Escape to Victory with Bobby Moore, Pelé, Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone.

Thirty years on from those glory days, Ossie has a unique perspective on the football world, through his long career both playing and in management, with the emphasis always on style and entertainment. He also talks about growing up under a military dictatorship, how he was torn between two countries owing to the outbreak of the Falklands War, which claimed the life of one of his cousins, and how that football world has changed over the decades.

There have been football books which have told their tale through the partisan heart of a besotted fan, and those that have dissected their subject through the scientific mind of an objective writer. But rarely does one fuse the blind passion of a lifelong supporter with the cold eye of an award-winning journalist in the way 44 Years With The Same Bird does.

That bird is the Liver Bird, and on the surface this book is a pitch-side view of the entire modern era of Britain's most successful football club. It is Brian Reade's take on the extraordinary stories behind the 48 trophies he has seen Liverpool lift since watching them en route to their first ever FA Cup win in 1965, right through to the Champions League defeat in Athens in 2007. It takes in all of the big nights that propelled the club to five European Cups, three UEFA Cups, twelve titles, countless domestic cup triumphs, bitter failures, the tragic disasters in Sheffield and Brussels, as well as the barren years of the late 60s and the 90s.

But the book goes far deeper than that. It's about how football allowed a father who was separated from his son to forge a precious bond. How a football club can make a city that is dying on its knees keep believing in itself. How you should never, as a professional, get too close to your heroes. How being part of a disaster at a football match (Hillsborough) can leave you a mental wreck, unwilling to carry on, but how witnessing a miracle on a football pitch (Istanbul) makes you realize that no matter how low you sink, you should never give in.

High jinx and japes from Soccer Saturday's roving reporter extraordinaire, Chris "Kammy" Kamara, whose boyish enthusiasm and often baffling, at-the-ground football reportage has given him cult status and an army of fans.

Over the past decade, football results programme Soccer Saturday has become a television phenomenon, delivering goals and drama via a raft of ex-professional players positioned in TV studios and on precarious gangplanks in rusting stadiums around the country.

At the heart of this success is free-wheeling pundit and roving reporter extraordinaire, Chris "Kammy" Kamara, the former footballer-turned-manager-turned-cult hero who has astounded and dumbfounded a legion of armchair fans with his crackpot catchphrases, hyperactive reporting style and Lionel Richie haircut.

Mr Unbelievable is his rags to riches tale. As a player, Kammy trawled football's outposts with the likes of Bradford City, Stoke City and Portsmouth where he suffered the slings, arrows and hurled bananas of racial abuse. Later, during the autumn of his career, he played in Howard Wilkinson's swashbuckling Leeds team where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Eric Cantona and Lee Chapman.

On hanging up his boots, he moved into the dugouts at Bradford and Sunderland as manager before joining the Sky football revolution as roving reporter on Soccer Saturday and Goal On Sunday's eagle-eyed analyst, amassing a raft of catchphrases along the way.

Mr Unbelievable is a hugely entertaining, moving, shocking and laugh out loud funny story of a genuine cult hero.

The Ultimate Companion to A Beautiful Game

This new Rough Guide is the only soccer book of its kind. It uncovers the most amazing stories and the unlikeliest personalities on Planet Football, both past and present, that help to make soccer the greatest show on earth.

We reveal the stories behind the mavericks and cult figures who make up the real heroes of the game - from cultured midfielders to jailbirds, drinkers to straight arrows, local legends to international wanderers. The book showcases an amazing and unusual roll-call of talent that stretches from Ferenc Puskas to Stan Bowles, Eric Cantona to Jose Chilavert and Garrincha to Perry Groves.

Throughout, we run our eye over the special clubs - from the New York Cosmos to Berwick Rangers and Estudiantes; managers and football rivalries - from 'El Clásico' to the Faroe Islands derby; and recall extraordinary games from 'The Battle of Highbury' to underdog fixtures where the likes of Northern Ireland, Wimbledon, and Dynamo Kiev overcame the might of Spain, Liverpool, and the Nazis.
Post-match analyses of football culture, ephemera, science, and some strange statistics, complete this ultimate fiesta of football fun.

"Ain't it great to be alive? All you need is the green grass and a ball"
-Pele

When journalist Paddy Agnew and his girlfriend Dympna touched down in Rome in 1985 in search of adventure, sunshine and the soul of Italian football (well, Paddy was looking for that), they were travelling into the uncharted terrain of a country they did not know and a language they did not speak.

It soon became clear that neither Italy nor Italian football would be boring. In that first week in Italy, Michel Platini and Juventus won the Intercontinental Cup, whilst just days later the PLO killed 13 people in a random shooting at Rome's Fiumicino airport. Paddy covered both stories. The coming years saw the rise of TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, as he became owner of AC Milan and then Prime Minister of Italy, naming his political party 'Forza Italia' after a football chant. In that same period, Argentine Diego Maradona became the uncrowned King of Naples, leading Napoli to a first ever Scudetto title in 1987, notwithstanding a hectic, Hollywood-esque lifestyle that mixed footballing genius with off-the-field excess.

Forza Italia is a fascinating tale of inspired players, skilled coaches, rich tycoons, glitzy media coverage, Mafia corruption, allegations of drug taking and fan power - culminating in the 2006 World Cup victory that delighted a nation and a match-fixing scandal that shocked the world. It is also a personalised reflection on the consistent and continuing excellence of Italian football throughout a period of huge social, political and economic upheaval, offering a unique insight into a society where football has always been much more than just a game.

Todos sabemos que, según Bill Shankly, "el fútbol no es cuestión de vida o muerte, sino algo mucho más importante".

Sin embargo, ¿sabemos también por qué se puso tan trascendental el mítico entrenador del Liverpool? ¿Y en qué pensaba Valdano cuando habló por primera vez del "miedo escénico"? ¿De verdad creía Helenio Herrera que se juega mejor con diez que con once? ¿Dónde está el origen de los puyazos entre Bilardo y Menotti? ¿Qué quiso decir Maradona con eso de que "la pelota no se mancha"?

Este libro no es una mera recopilación de citas futbolísticas, sino un puñado de historias con la palabra como eje. De Javier Clemente a Johan Cruyff; de Brian Clough a José Mourinho, pasando por Jesús Gil o Juanma Lillo.

"Hay que saber de donde venimos para poder decidir a dónde vamos", afirma Andoni Goikoetxea en el prólogo de esde Bilbao, y las historias personales de unos cuantos jugadores, árbitros, empleados y periodistas que lo siguieron durante años.El Athletic es fútbol, pero es también un sentimiento.