A fascinating book featuring chapters on football in various Eastern European countries. Wilson wonderfully combines a view of the key moments in the history of football in each country and an evaluation of the state of the game now. Each country is fascinating, whether the depression of Hungarian football looking back on a golden age which they can never hope to emulate and which itself is regarded as failure to achieve what was possible, or the status of football in the Balkans and it’s association with identity.
I could have kept reading more and more. Wilson clearly has a love of football and Eastern Europe, and the two are wonderfully combined. I’m already planning to buy his next book “Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics”.