On my walk home from the bus today I felt extra compelled to make something of myself as a blogger. I decided (like I do every other time I feel this way) that the most significant trait of a successful writer/blogger/sharer/internet media person is that they provide a constant a reliable stream of content. In order to create content you need topics, or even just one topic. I set out to obtain such a topic via twitter.

Now when Hitesh responded he wanted me to write a post about “How soccer explains the world” I assume he meant he wanted my view point on how you can explain the worlds happenings, troubles, etc through soccer. I’m going to take the cop out and state what many of you already know. How Soccer Explains the World is a book. Now that I’ve stated the dull fact I can proceed to briefly share some of my thoughts on said book.

It’s a moderately compelling read. Even if you’re not a huge soccer fan, you’ll probably want to finish the book once you start just because it mostly contains interesting stories rather than “solely soccer material.” You’ll come across stories of Red Star Belgrade essentially being used to proliferate genocide. Later you’ll get into anti-semitism expressed towards Tottenham Hotspur and how their fans decided to embrace it as part of the cultural identity of the club. Religious ties continue during the discussion of the rivalry between Celtic and Rangers, and you can’t helped but be entertained by the strangeness of how the clubs have embraced players of religious faith different than each of their historical basis.

Towards the end of the book you’ll hear about how the writer really mainly became interested in the book because he took a walk through Barcelona’s museum. At that point you’ll realize he did some good research but isn’t connected to the game with the same intensity you are. You’ll have decided the rest of the book is now less interesting. That’s how it will go, now you can go read the book and tell me I was right.