Penalty Kick
$29.99
The Story of a Gamechanger
Low Stock
Description
'Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for ninety minutes and at the end, the Germans win.' Gary Lineker
A rousing history of the penalty kick and its introduction in English football by a famed British writer & editor.
A rousing history of the penalty kick and its introduction in English football by a famed British writer & editor.
Football, in the 1880s, was a rough and dangerous game. To address the abhorrent state of the sport, William McCrum, an amateur Irish goalkeeper and the author’s great-grandfather, proposed the penalty kick, a new and drastic sanction introduced to the game in 1891. For over a hundred years, this extraordinary phenomenon has not only regulated the conduct of football (also known as soccer) but has also inspired game theories and infiltrated classics of contemporary literature.
An enthralling portrait of a lost age, The Penalty Kick- The Story of a Gamechanger is a family history, a social history, and a history of the world’s most popular sport. It considers an extraordinary phenomenon as it examines the penalty kick’s psychological-even philosophical-grip on our imaginations, with its distillation of risk and chance into the penalty shoot-out, an all-or-nothing moment.
Reviews
'McCrum displays a lightness of touch and an artfulness that make The Penalty Kick a singular addition to the body of writing on this subject.' * Literary Review * 'McCrum was the millionaire son of an Irish linen merchant, a high-stakes gambler, and a Corinthian. He also invented the penalty kick . . . His story is now available in this gorgeous Notting Hill Edition. Written by Robert McCrum, the great-grandson of the trailblazer, it is beautifully and carefully stitched together, switching from family history to psychological study without missing a step or giving you pause to put it down.' * Mundial * 'An extraordinary family history - one of luck, love, disappointment and the tyranny of class and generational expectation.' * Spectator * 'The story of three generations of the McCrums is affecting and full of compelling details.' * Wall Street Journal * 'A fun little book, stuffed with pensees on the peno.' * Irish Times *
