La Roja: How Soccer Conquered Spain and How Spanish Soccer Conquered the World

Delving, as it does, into Spain, "La Roja," has as much to do with politics as with that country's world champion national soccer team.Jimmy Burns has written an amenable yet substantive story about how Spain went from a bullfighting nation to kings of international football.He goes way back to the 1880s and an English-owned mine in Huelva where the first games of football were played exclusively by Brits. The journalistic knitting continues as Basque teams assert primacy and then Argentines come to enliven the game with a quick passing style."La Roja" is about the places where such trends were born and the people who sowed them on Spanish soil.Burns's chronicling of Barcelona F.C's role as an expression of Catalan culture and its rivalry with Real Madrid is deftly woven into discussion of the defeated Republic, the Monarchy, the Falange and, poignantly, the names of soccer players killed during the Spanish Civil War.Noteworthy, too, is Burns's analysis of the Franco dictatorship's aggressive engagement with football as a tool to soothe tensions on the Iberian peninsula, as a propaganda weapon, and as diplomatic entry to worlds otherwise closed to the regime.Burns suggests Franco made the Spanish national team a projection of homegrown fascism. A group possessing the "racial" qualities of true and pure Spaniards, and which brought to the playing field a particular "Spanish Fury." A sobriquet that stuck.Like many people in Spain who had little time for the national selection over the years, Burns believes that the "The Spanish Fury" amounted to a whole lot of nothing, and that success in world-class tournaments would be elusive until a more modern and technical conception of Spanish soccer could be born.Of course it happened. "La Roja" was released on the occasion of a repeat European Cup championship for the team of the same nickname. An unprecedented kind of success for such a national outfit.Although his lead-up to the latest and most glorious chapter in Spanish soccer is first-rate, this reviewer did not find Burns very clear on why the ultimate transformation occurred.Was it a special generation of players who learned how to transcend the rivalries carried over from the club level? Ditching Raul? Was it David Beckham's impact as a media and celebrity item on future Spanish stars? The Argentines?Maybe it's in there, but in any case, "La Roja" remains an always engaging look at a sudden dynasty. Its author understands soccer as culture and an expression of collective identities without forgetting that it is still sport.

The author does a very nice job of addressing the major elements of the history and evolution of soccer (futbol) in Spain, especially in the first 225 or so pages which covers the period through the early 1980s. In the last 100 pages or so, however, although the key points are addressed, the pace accelerates tremendously and the quality and depth of the story decreases. The story jumps around in several places, losing continuity, and it seemed like the author needed to finish writing the book to meet a deadline. It's very well worth reading, especially for setting the background to understanding today's La Liga and national squad, but lacks depth on fully capturing the story of the more recent success. As background, I have played and followed soccer since my teenage years living in Argentina in the early 1970s and have been visiting Spain and relatives (mostly soccer fans, of course) since the mid-1990s.

A slow read initially. Some of the initial history was tough to go through, the pace only started to pick up after around chapter 10. But we do get some good insights into how different parts of Spain were introduced to Football and how they came to interpret it, playing their own distinctive styles to eventually form one whole team with a clear identity. At times, the book felt like fiction, being so descriptive of even the minutest of details. But i guess thats the beauty of the book.

This book catalogues the growth of the sport from England to small mining towns in Spain where Brits created their own teams and clubs. It jumps across the pond the the ports of Brazil, Argentina and Chile and explains the exponential growth there.It's such a great book showing how football has come to be a global game and it traces back the roots for it so we can know exactly why that's the case.

There is a fantastic book to be written about Spanish Football and its relationship to that fractured and fascinating country. Sadly this isn't it. Jimmy Burns deals well enough with the importation of the game from England, the sporadic growth, the rupture of the Civil War and the eventual triumph.But there is a sparseness of detail and a lack of insight (if you are relying on Ardal O'Hanlon as a source then you are in trouble) and all this really undermines the book. Still I read it and enjoyed parts of it but it didn't really tell me anything I didn't really know before. Fr Dougal Maguire might enjoy it.

The book itself is amazing and interesting. Great for Spanish futbol enthusiasts, or even Spanish history buffs. The book was shipped quickly and even though the price was suspiciously lower than most of the other booksellers' prices, nothing was wrong with it. Paper is done and I no longer need the book, but, I will keep it and reread it. Great buy!

Meticulously researched book which tells the history of the Spanish national team from the 1920's through the Franco years to Spain's World Cup victory in 2010. A colorful and varied approach from start to finish. Author is a real Spanish insider who personally obtained dozens of interviews from soccer stars of the last several decades. Informative, entertaining, enjoyable.

I did not know the background of futbol in Spain but this book gave a lot of insight on the game, its influence, the politics and how Spain views their clubs and their influences on life in general. Very insightful.

I read this whilst on a recent trip to Valencia, in keeping with the Spanish theme of the weekend.The writer does a great job describing the very British influenced birth of football in Spain, to the modern dominance of international football by the national team, via the influence the civil war had on some of the clubs. There are also interesting stories about some of the most influential players on La Liga over the years, both domestic and foreign.If like me you enjoy the large amount of spanish football shown by sky sports, then this is a good read to see how it all started, and learn that it was not an easy journey from essentially poverty and humbling footballing lessons, to the pinnacle of the game where spanish football sits now.

A fantastic read for anyone who either loves Spanish football or interested in 20th Spanish history.There is a particular focus on Athletic Bilbao which any soccer fans who cheered their exciting soccer played last year in Europa Cup will enjoy

This was a really interesting book showing how Spanish football has changed as the nation itself changed,from the Franco years to the modern era.Lots of interesting stories and personalities.I did hold back one star on this review as I felt a lot of clubs were skimmed over.Valencia/Deportivo La Coruna/Zaragoza and my beloved Real Mallorca (they had a great team in the late 90's honest !) barely mentioned despite a number of fine sides and honours between them.However,in fairness that is not really the aim of this book so cannot be held too much against it.Overall,a great read.

Interesting and thoroughly researched. Amazing insight in a fascinating political landscape. Excellently written and offers a real glimpse of Spanish football, including some interesting looks at history and how that affects the football.

This is a very good historical overview of the evolution of Spanish football from its introduction to Spain by British mining company managers in the 19th century to the recent success of La Roja in the European Championships and 2010 World Cup. The analysis of the impacts and legacy of the Spanish Civil War is particularly good. Well written by an author who clearly knows his subject.