World Cup Fever

The story of how football transformed the world, told through nine World Cups - by one of our most talented football writers

A Sports Book of the Year in the Irish Times, the FT and the Mail on Sunday

'Kuper is one of the best sportswriters in the English language today' New Yorker

The ultimate book for anyone who loves football, and plenty who don't ... Unmissable -- 'Sports Books of the Year' - Mail on Sunday

It's the biggest competition on Earth.

A four-yearly chance for the world's greatest footballers to realise their ultimate dream.

A month-long media spectacle that's watched by billions.

The World Cup has changed beyond recognition since the early days, when the players were semi-pros and the trophy went missing. Today, it's a corporate-led bonanza of dark money and dubious ethics.

Simon Kuper, bestselling author of Barça, reflects on every tournament since Italia 90 to reveal a captivating portrait of sport in a globalised world.

Entertaining and compelling, World Cup Fever is the definitive story of football's greatest drama, and of how the tournament can touch - and even change - our lives.

Kuper is an excellent guide... his book is filled with memorable vignettes - Spectator

'A brilliant evocation of the joy of the football carnival and the absurdities of the global spectacle... an essential companion' David Goldblatt

Charming and amusing - Literary Review

Kuper keeps the pages turning ... shines a light on the geopolitical happenings around each tournament - Irish Times

An essential warm-up for making sense of the extraordinary World Cup to come ... [Kuper] is a wry and sharp-eyed guide to the high-camp theatre of Fifa politics and the everyday carnival of fans on city streets - New Statesman

About the Author

Simon Kuper is an author and Financial Times journalist, born in Uganda and raised around the world. An Oxford graduate, he later attended Harvard as a Kennedy Scholar. He has written for the Guardian, Observer, and The Times and is also the author of Chums, The Happy Traitor, Football Against the Enemy and Barasa. He lives in Paris with his family.