Book

Wilson, Jonathan, 1976- author.

Angels with dirty faces : how Argentinian soccer defined a nation and changed the game forever / Jonathan Wilson.

New York : Nation Books, [2016]

xviii, 411 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm

Argentina has produced Alfredo Di Stéfano, Diego Maradona, and Lionel Messi--some of the greatest soccer players of all time. The country's rich, volatile history is by turns sublime and ruthlessly pragmatic. A nation obsessed with soccer, Argentina lives and breathes the game, its theories, and its myths. Jonathan Wilson lived in Buenos Aires, in an apartment between La Recoleta Cemetery--where the country's leading poets and politicians are buried--and the Huracán stadium. Like his apartment, Angels with Dirty Faces lies at the intersection of politics, literature, and sport. Here, he chronicles the evolution of Argentinian soccer: the appropriation of the British game, the golden age of la nuestra, the exuberant style of playing that developed as Juan Perón led the country into isolation, a hardening into the brutal methods of anti-fútbol, the fusing of beauty and efficacy under César Luis Menotti, and the emergence of all-time greats in Maradona and Messi against a backdrop of economic turbulence.

Soccer -- Argentina -- History.

Soccer players -- Argentina.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 386-400) and index.

Prologue: Utopias and their discontents, 1535-2016 -- Part one: The birth of a nation, 1863-1930 -- This English game -- A second birth -- The global stage -- Argentinidad -- The coming of money -- The Rioplatense supremacy -- Part two: The golden age, 1930-1958 -- Days of glory -- The coming of professionalism -- The rise of River -- Modernity and the Budapest butcher -- The knights of anguish -- The rise of Juan Perón -- El Dorado -- Back home -- Our way -- The zenith and beyond -- The last of the angels -- Part three: After the fall, 1958-1973 -- The death of innocence -- The contrarian and the growth of anti-fútbol -- The mouse's nest -- The open market -- The consecration of pragmatism -- Back on the horse -- El Caudillo -- The moral victory -- A peculiar glory -- Scorning the path of roses -- Part four: Rebirth and conflict, 1973-1978 -- A tainted triumph -- The gypsy, the car salesman, and the old ways -- The little pigeon -- The miracle of Huracán -- The return of Perón -- Of heroes and chickens -- The age of the devils -- Lorenzo and the Boca fulfillment -- The first steps to glory -- Glory in a time of terror -- Part five: A new hope, 1978-1990 -- The nativity -- The unlikeliest champions -- The pride of the nation -- The return of anti-fútbol -- Maradana in Europe -- Optimism and the Libertadores -- His finest hour -- Burying the chicken -- The Neapolitan glory -- Moral champions again -- Part six: Debt and disillusionment, 1990-2002 -- The third way -- Tabárez and the Boca revival -- The fatal urine of Foxborough -- The rise of Vélez and the River revival -- The failure of neoliberalism -- The dwindling of a genius -- The lure of the past -- Boca's age of glory -- The crash -- Part seven: Over the water, 2002-2015 -- The second coming -- The ascent from the abyss -- The growth of the legend -- The list in the sock -- The ecstasy of gold -- The end of the affair -- Messi and the Messiah -- Distrust and short-termism -- Home discomforts -- The little witch, the Pope, and the gleeful chicken -- The ongoing drought -- The eternal laurels.

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