The Beautiful Game - The Most Amazing Soccer Stories Of All Time

Introduction xi

1. WHEN THINGS SPILL OVER 1 The football war 3 A headbutt to honour his sister 5 More red cards than players on the pitch 9 Drawing blood at the Maracana 11
2. FOOTLOL TALES 14 The smell of disaster 15 The psychic octopus 17 Lying about your grandmother's death...
3. Twice! 19 That's just Scilly - the world's smallest
4. football league 23 Have a dig! 25 Absolutely dental! 27 Not too Xavi a dream 29 A flying header 31 Making a dog's dinner out of it 35 Triple word sore 37
5. SUPERHUMAN STORIES 39 The Scorpion Kick 41 A pain in the neck 45 The Kaiser 49 Sportsmanship gone too far? 53 The wonderkid that never was 55 The Lionesses 57
6. WHEN IT'S JUST PLAIN BIZARRE 59 The strangest match in modern history 61 A 5-month-long game 65 When the players couldn't see each other 67 The worst football transfer of all time 71

The most legend-dairy football transfer of

all time 75 Brotherly rivalry 77 The Angel With Bent Legs 79 "I can give you a hand" - literally 81 Rohypnol on the pitch 83 Lasagne-gate 85 Pizza-gate 87 Red carded for being helpful 89 The striker and the stolen necklace 91 Free or duty Free? Albanian team in hot

water 95 Luis SuaÌrez's third bite of the cherry 97 Yellow card, red Card, hand gun 99 The game of three halves 101 Pickles the dog and the missing World Cup 103 The goal that was "Like a UFO landing" 105 A very public World Cup poo 107 Big shoes to fill 109 Ali Dia - Football's biggest fraudster 111 Austria's very own Oliver Beerhoff 115 From spectator to striker in the blink of

an eye 117

1. SUPERSTITIONS 120 The Bald Buddha 121 Playing with no defenders to upkeep a
2. superstition 123 Shinpad superstitions 125
3. FEET FEATS 127 A truly golden goal 129 The most disastrous debut! 131 The Lisbon Lions 135 Villan's villain four goal fest 137 Football's greatest fairytale 139 The Hand of God 141 The most disliked underdog 145 The greatest three leaf clover 149 Liverpool's last gasp goal glut 153

The Busby Babes - Rising from the ashes 155 Winning a tournament they didn't

qualify for 159 Brazil's greatest ever humiliation 163 "AguÌeroooooooooo...." 165 The greatest cup run in the world 169 The greatest striking partnership ever 173 The greatest defending partnership ever 177

1. UNLUCKY, SON! 180 Ghana take some time to recover from
2. that one! 181 Seeing black... then red! 183 The Champions League that 'slipped' away 185 The ball is in orbit 187 The world's worst tackle 189 Missing more beautifully than others score 191
3. IT'S ALL POLITICS 193 The most politically charged game ever 195 The known dictator story 197 The less known and more obvious dictator
4. story 201
5. THE HEART WRENCHERS 204 Dead for 5 minutes 205 Shot because of an own goal 207 The game of their lives 209
6. THE RECORD BREAKERS 211
7. Zombie footballers? The world's longest
8. match 213 Extra...Extra...Extra time! 215 Blink and you'll miss it 217 Sardine spectator record - Most fans in a
9. stadium 219 Where did THAT one come from? 223 Giants of the Game 225 FFS! Red card at the speed of light... 229 The greatest goal gulf of all time 231 Bury me in my boots - I'll never hang
10. them up! 233

Most penalty misses in one game 235 Red card for the ref 239 The longest penalty shoot-out ever 243 Temporary manager - Shortest time on

the job 245 The Invincibles 247 Top international goal scorer - Ronaldo 249 Net-buster extraordinaire - Lionel Messi 251

1. A QUICK FAVOUR 253
2. REFERENCES 254