THE WORLD IS A BALL: THE JOY, MADNESS AND MEANING OF SOCCER by John Doyle

Category: Sports & Recreation - Soccer
Format: Hardcover, 416 pages
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
ISBN: 978-0-385-66498-1 (0-385-66498-2)

Pub Date: May 11, 2010
Price: $29.95

This is not a review (for I am still reading it)...simply a recommendation.

With the World Cup upon us, I thought John Doyle's  (Globe and Mail columnist)"The World is A Ball" would be a handy read.  So everytime I sit down to watch a match I bring it to the couch with me to read during half time or a commercial break.  I started off not knowing if I was going to enjoy it because (even though I enjoy soccer) I have never really attempted to read a book about the sport or any other sport for that matter, so what a pleasant surprise to find that the book actually reads like a cross between a love story (the love of a man for a sport) and a travelogue (for he travels all across the world for his love, catching games in different continents). 

The book is divided into three main parts:  The first part is a sort of introduction to soccer and how the author came to love the game in his native Ireland;  the second and main chunk of the book deals with his travels to distant parts of the world to take in the World Cup of 2002/2006 and the Euro Cup 2004/2008 as a reporter for the Globe and Mail.  The final part of the book includes short, incisive accounts of several of the keynote qualifying games for this world cup – including a wonderful roaming through Bari when Ireland went to play Italy.

Doyle has a great eye for everything that his happening around him.   When he goes to Japan for the World Cup 2002 (held jointly in South Korea and Japan) he describes the dour- faced Japanese policemen who have been told to expect soccer hooligans from England, instead, they are confronted hoardes of Irish fans, dressed as leprechauns and priests and are cheerily greeting the policemen who don't know what to make of the spectacle unfolding before their very eyes.  Japanese fans, in contrast, are fairly subdued, what's more, soccer seems to be the sport of the young and the very young.  The older Japanese folk do not follow soccer and were actually up in arms with the government for hosting the World Cup.  Many were just plain scared of the foreigners arriving into their cities in large numbers and went out of their way to avoid them.

Having never seen a professional soccer game, much less a game at the World Cup, I was riveted by Doyle's descriptions of what happens before the game begins (the little outdoor park parties where fans are entertained by local bands) and all the mayhem and celebration during the game.   He even will describe what goes between the teams....most of which the TV cameras do not catch. Don't get me wrong, TV has some great coverage, but it doesn't quite capture the energy and atmosphere of a live crowd!  This is how he describes the end of Turkey-Korea match:

“Turkey wins 3-2 and most of the Korean players, exhausted beyond imagining, fall to their knees. Then a remarkable thing happens: Some Turkish players begin pulling the Koreans to their feet, embracing them and tugging them into acknowledging the supporters in the stands alongside them. Both teams link arms together in one long line of players from two countries and bow to the crowd. Hakan Sukur, Turkey's greatest living player, walks from the field waving a Korean flag. … the spontaneity of the gesture makes it movingly authentic … both South Korea and Turkey know they are the true champions of this World Cup.” 
I also found a lot of his musings on soccer quite insightful, like why the Americans make such good soccer players orwhy Canada will always be a hockey nation first, not soccer:

"I don't think we can realistically expect that Canada will become a soccer nation, I think that would be foolhardy. To begin with, the national game in Canada is hockey, as it should be.
 Hockey represents this country's essence in some ways -- figures on the ice and playing against the elements is representative of the essence of Canada, that sense of survival against the elements.

"But soccer is growing in popularity -- it has more registered players in Canada than any other sport -- and I think that over the years, the children and grandchildren of people who came here from soccer counties will have a greater opportunity to play the game here, and that eventually soccer will become perhaps the second or third sport in Canada."

While it may seem ludicrous for a Canadian television reporter (at no point does Doyle ever call himself a sports writer) to be writing a book about soccer, it is exactly that kind of neutrality that makes his impressions, especially when it comes to soccer teams or individuals soccer players so important.  Take for instance what he says about Zidane on page ... 

“He has an artist’s cold, intense loathing for those who refuse to play soccer with the elegance and calm grace that he brings to it";  “a great artist’s unapologetic rage against mediocrity.”  Looked at that way, Zidane’s epochal head-butting of Italy’s Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final may now perhaps be understood???

To be continued...