SFBC Archives - Duckworth Books

Played in Germany

Beyond the booze and the bratwurst: what football really tells us about Germany

Germany is one of the world’s great footballing powers. Four-time World Cup winners, Euro 2024 hosts and home to clubs like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, the country’s notorious winning mentality and vibrant fan culture are as famous as its beer and its cars. But if you look closer, what does the beautiful game really tell us about German history, culture and society?

Played in Germany takes us on a journey through modern Germany’s football heartlands in search of the issues that define it. Through the songs, stadiums and simmering resentments of football, Kit Holden sheds light on a nation so diverse and divided that the only thing that really unites it is the game itself.

From the author of Sports Book Awards-shortlisted Scheisse! We’re Going Up!

Scheisse! We’re Going Up!

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023 (FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR)

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A club on the rise. A city in flux. This is Union Berlin.

No football club in the world has fans like 1. FC Union Berlin. The underdogs from East Berlin have stuck it to the Stasi, built their own stadium and even given blood to save their club. But now they face a new and terrifying prospect: success.

Scheisse! tells the human stories behind the unexpected rise of this unique football club. But it’s about more than just football. It’s about the city Union call home. As the club fights to maintain their rebel spirit among the modern football elite, their trajectory mirrors that of contemporary Berlin itself: from divided Cold War battleground to European capital of cool.

Scheisse! will appeal to readers who are captivated by sports biographies such as Raphael Honigstein’s Das Reboot and social history like John Kampfner’s Why The Germans Do It Better.

The Great Cave Rescue

First came the awful news that 12 boys and their football coach were missing. Then came the flickering video of the boys found by a pair of British divers nine days later.

Monsoon rains had raised the water level in the cave system, and they were trapped in an air pocket, surrounded by rising muddy water, over two kilometres from the cave entrance. Expert British, Australian, American, Chinese, and other international divers joined the Thai Navy SEALs and hundreds of local volunteers to mount one of the most risky and complex rescue operations the world has ever seen.

South-east Asia correspondent James Massola recreates the drama, tension, and inspiration of the days in July 2018 when the eyes of the whole world were trained on a remote Thai mountain. Very little information about what happened inside the cave was released by the Thai authorities at the time, but through interviews Massola has managed to obtain extensive details of the nine long days the Wild Boars were on their own and during the rescue operation itself as well as background information about the boys and coach.

He writes about the pivotal role of the British Cave Rescue Council in leading the international effort, and determining the technical aspects of the rescue. He reveals how the Thai, British, US, Australian and other international divers worked together so smoothly, when even a minor miscommunication could have resulted in death or serious injury. And, most dramatically, he discloses the number of instances in which the rescue operation nearly went wrong.

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