First ever cultural history of the goalkeeper, the 'loner' between the posts.'Aloof, solitary, impassive, the crack goalie is followed in the streets by entranced small boys. He vies with the matador and the flying aces, an object of thrilled adulation. He is the lone eagle, the man of mystery, the last defender.' Nabokov (quoted here), Camus, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, James Joyce, even Julian Barnes . . .it's safe to say the goalkeeper hasn't always been a team player.In THE OUTSIDER, Jonathan Wilson traces the sometimes dangerous intellectual and literary preoccupations of the keeper, and looks at how the position has secured a certain existential cool, as well as taking a deep tactical and technical look at the history of goalkeeping. Jonathan Wilson is the football correspondent for the FINANCIAL TIMES as well as writing for the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH and GUARDIAN. There has been the odd, minor work on goalkeeping in the past, but nothing like this in scope or depth.
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First ever cultural history of the goalkeeper, the 'loner' between the posts.
absorbing... Wilson's book offers a Christmas pudding of a narrative, richly packed with diverting nuggets of goalie lore -- Paul Connolly * METRO *Wilson's thoughtful look into one of football's most under-discussed positions took him across several continents in search of some of the most eccentric, intellectual and downright bizarre individuals to have starred in the game... engrossing... The seamless and fascinating story of this curious outsider is a resounding success, and Wilson has once again come up trumps * DAILY MIRROR *a splendid history of football's complicated scapegoats -- Jim White * THE DAILY TELEGRAPH *fascinating... From the obese, to the heroic and the corrupt, goalkeepers provide endless anecdotal material. Wilson weaves it together skilfully, from Victorian times to the present, from Charterhouse to Cameroon. The case for the position provoking a kind of existential unease is elegantly made * LITERARY REVIEW *Wilson's 'part technical, part tactical, part cultural reassessment' is as fascinating a study as FFT has ever seen on the psyche and evolution of the keeper. From tales of tragedy to examining the recent rise of American stoppers, you'll never view No.1 in the same way again * FOUR FOUR TWO *Jonathan Wilson usually gives you more than you bargain for and The Outsider is no different... So plentiful were the extroverts and introverts in the goalkeeping fraternity, one wonders how it has taken this long for such a detailed all-encompassing account to emerge * IRISH TIMES *In The Outsider, Jonathan Wilson offers an ebullient history of the goalkeeper and tries to work out what it is that attracts the spiritual, the quizzical, the odd and the reflective to the position... Wilson offers a picture of the goalkeeper as an outsider, but also more of an everyman than you might think. -- David Goldblatt * THE INDEPENDENT *Few other positions in football are worth writing a book about... It is the goalkeeper who is the true object of fascination. As Jonathan Wilson points out in his excellently researched and written The Outsider, the reason for this is probably that the whole purpose of goalkeeping is to thwart everyone else -- Peter Chapman * FINANCIAL TIMES *the ever-readable Wilson explores the psychological pressures of being cast in the role of the scapegoat...Thought-provoking and full of interesting detail... this book scores on every level -- Simon Redfern * THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *The Outsider is a terrific history of its subject. It wears its knowledgeable perspective lightly and deftly works its vast research into the text without battering you over the head with it. Wilson can always be relied upon to come up with something a little bit different and a little bit special, and this has plenty of both * WHEN SATURDAY COMES *The Outsider is a terrific history of its subject. It wears its knowledgeable perspective lightly, and deftly works its vast research into the text without battering you over the head with it. Wilson can always be relied upon to come up with something a little bit different and a little bit special and this has plenty of both * SUNDAY BUSINESS POST *
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First ever cultural history of the goalkeeper, the 'loner' between the posts.

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781409123194
Publisert
2012-12-06
Utgiver
Vendor
Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
Vekt
536 gr
Høyde
215 mm
Bredde
146 mm
Dybde
36 mm
Aldersnivå
01, G
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
368

Forfatter

Biographical note

Jonathan Wilson is the football correspondent for the FINANCIAL TIMES, and writes for the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH and GUARDIAN ONLINE. His work has appeared in the INDEPENDENT, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, FOURFOURTWO and WHEN SATURDAY COMES.

He is the critically acclaimed author of a series of sports titles, including INVERTING THE PYRAMID: A HISTORY OF FOOTBALL TACTICS, which won a NATIONAL SPORTING CLUB AWARD and was shortlisted for the WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR.

Follow Jonathan Wilson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jonawils.