Modern soccer is big business. From the ill-received takeover of Manchester United by the Glazer family to Paris Saint Germain’s current shopping spree for the best footballers on the planet, soccer finance has become an increasingly important part of the game.

Barely a summer goes by now without a cherished club going into administration or a wealthy businessman funding a mid table team’s ascension to Champions League competitor. Meanwhile, the twice-annual multi-million dollar merry-go-round of transfer season sees players (and now managers) signed for sums thought impossible just a decade ago. Understanding soccer finance has become essential for comprehending the beautiful game. But for many fans, soccer finance remains, frustratingly, a world that is opaque and difficult to grasp.

Stefan Szymanski, co-author of the bestselling Soccernomics, tackles every soccer fan’s burning questions inMoney and Soccer: A Soccernomics Guide. From the abolition of the maximum wage in the 1960s, through to the impact of TV money both at home and abroad in the 1990s and 2000s, Szymanski explains how money, or lack of, affects your favorite club. Drawing on extensive research into financial records dating back to the 1970s, Szymanski provides clear analysis of the way that clubs have transformed in the modern era.

This book isn’t limited to European clubs. Szymanski, a renowned expert on sports management and economics, looks at what we can learn from comparing the ascension of Europe’s biggest clubs to their lofty perches and with new financial models across the world. Through careful research and informative stories drawn from around the globe, Szymanski provides an accessible guide to the world of soccer finance.

?As an avid fan of the game and a firm believer in the power that such objective analysis can bring to sports, I was captivated by this book. Soccernomics is an absolute must-read.”?Billy Beane, General Manager, Oakland A’s

Why doesn’t the United States dominate soccer internationally...and how can it?
Which is the best soccer nation on earth?
Who has the most passionate fans?
What impact does soccer have on suicide rates?
Which sport will dominate the Earth? NFL or the English Premier League?
Why are the people who run soccer clubs so dumb?

These are some of the questions every soccer fanatic has asked. Soccernomics answers them. Written with an economist’s brain and a soccer writer’s skill, it applies high-powered analytical tools to everyday soccer topics, looking at data in new ways, revealing counterintuitive truths about the world’s most loved game. It all adds up to a revolutionary way of looking at soccer that could affect the way the game is played internationally.

Simon Kuper’s New York Times bestseller Soccernomics pioneered a new way of looking at soccer through meticulous empirical analysis and incisive?and witty? commentary. Kuper now leaves the numbers and data behind to explore the heart and soul of the world’s most popular sport in the new, extraordinarily revealing Soccer Men.

Soccer Men goes behind the scenes with soccer’s greatest players and coaches. Inquiring into the genius and hubris of the modern game, Kuper details the lives of giants such as Arsène Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Jorge Valdano, Lionel Messi, Kaká, and Didier Drogba, describing their upbringings, the soccer cultures they grew up in, the way they play, and the baggage they bring to their relationships at work.

From one of the great sportswriters of our time, Soccer Men is a penetrating and surprising anatomy of the figures that define modern soccer.