This is football done as a super-cool picture information book. Forty footballers are introduced over stylish double-page spreads, each one represented in graphic, stylish illustration that picks out distinctive characteristics. Blocks of text integrated into the opposite page fill you in on trophies and honours, games played, goals scored or saved, along with snippets of more unusual and original information (Stanley Matthews was paid £5 a week when he signed for Stoke; Franz Beckenbauer played the 1970 World Cup semi-final with a dislocated collarbone in a sling for 50 minutes). The facts and the figures and these extra bits of insight will make readers feel that they really know these players, and the book is very satisfying as a visual object too.
Relive Ronaldo's most memorable moments, learn about Messi's legendary left foot, meet the youngest-ever World Cup goal scorer, Pele, and see the some of the most spectacular saves in history. Every player is a winner in their own way, but who will you choose as your hero? Jam-packed full of fun footie facts about who each legend played for, how many goals they scored and the special skills they had, this is the perfect read for football fans all over the world.
Jean-Michel Billioud studied at the Institut Francais de Presse and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. He has since published a hundred non-fiction books on various themes with two obsessions: explaining things as simply as possible and rescuing from oblivion what times wants to erase. He lives in France.
