Angels With Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina

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Wilson describes the Argentine national character, which, like many, is built upon its own myths and legends and how this is manifested within the development of the national game. From the freeway, the city’s suburbs struck me as rigid, seemingly infinite juts of concrete, like a Georges Braque piece dressed in orange neon. He also covers the ‘ Pibe’ identity, the scrappy street kid who makes it good on the pitch, encapsulated perfectly by Diego Armando Maradona. Maradona was the personification of the Pibe tradition, which was almost designed for him, the author notes - a poor boy, touched with genius, but fatally flawed. The story Wilson tells from that point onwards is broadly one of a conflict between those two tendencies within the Argentinian game.

The best parts are when he puts himself into the stories, when he details his time in Argentina, meeting and chatting with the legendary figures. If you’re interested in history, the roots of the game and getting under the skin of one of the world’s foremost footballing nations then I’d have a go at this.Maradona’s shadow is long in the last 40 years of Argentinian football, and he carries way more love at home than his closest comparison, Lionel Messi, who left Argentina aged 13.

He always picks a fight with the club he’s in, ends his career at each club with a catastrophic disagreement. p. 192: "The junta went further and instituted the Proceso de Reorganizacion Nacional, which defined Argentina as a Christian country fighting communism.Napisać sześciuset stronicową książkę na, było nie było hermetyczny, temat jakim jest historia piłki nożnej w obcym kraju, w taki sposób aby czytelnik podczas lektury nie umarł z nudów, a wręcz dał się wessać w opowieść, to nie lada wyczyn. The greatest intrigue lies at the heart of the country, as you come to understand not just the frailties and triumphs of the national team – but also of the fragmented club structure and the battles of amateurism and professionalism. It connects a the great history of the national team with the history of the nation and makes it very interesting. Darby, whose parents keep her locked in her bedroom, and who arrives pale and terrified one Christmas Eve.

There has always been a love/hate relationship for me when it comes to players from this region – coloured by my repulsion of Barcelona with the figurehead of Messi as they denied my club two Champions League titles in early 21st century. To one side it represented a gleeful revenge for a hoard of slights going back way beyond the Falklands to the looting of Buenos Aires in 1806 by British warships under the command of Sir Home Popham. It was the beginning of a long mutual misunderstanding, confirmed in the minds of the average English fan two years later when Manchester United met Estudiantes de la Plata in the two-leg final of the Intercontinental Cup.Alfredo Di Stefano, Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistua, Juan Roman Riquelme, Lionel Messi… Argentina has produced some of the greatest footballers of all time. Although I resonated greater with ‘The Barcelona Legacy’ (no doubt due to my age and recollections of that era/recency bias), this definitive footballing history of Argentina is alluring and comprehensive, another triumphant work. From the first time Jose Alcosta shakes a football figure’s hand to mix politics and football, to campaigns being run on the strength of sporting accomplishments – Argentina traverses a philosophical landscape.