Bara: The rise and fall of the club that built modern football WINNER OF THE FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022

(Paperback)

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'This is a masterfully written history of the world's greatest football club. Mes que un book!' - GARY LINEKER

From the bestselling co-author of Soccernomics comes the story of how FC Barcelona became the most successful football club in the world - and how that envied position now hangs in the balance.

Bar a is not just the world's most popular sports club, it is simply one of the most influential organisations on the planet. With almost 250 million followers on social media and 4 million visitors to its Camp Nou stadium each year, there's little wonder its motto is 'More than a club'. But it was not always so. In the past three decades, Barcelona has transformed from regional team to global powerhouse, becoming a model of sporting excellence and a consistent winner of silverware.

Simon Kuper unravels exactly how these transformations took place. He outlines the organisational structure behind the club's business decisions, and details the work of its coaches, medics, data analysts and nutritionists who have revolutionised the sporting world. And, of course, he studies the towering influence of the club's two greatest legends, Johan Cruyff and Lionel Messi.

Like many leading global businesses, FC Barcelona closely guards its secrets, granting few outsiders a view behind the scenes. But, after decades of writing about the sport and the club, Kuper was given unprecedented access to the inner sanctum and to the people who strive daily to keep Barcelona at the top.

Erudite, personal, and capturing all the latest successes and upheavals, his portrait of this incredible institution goes beyond football to understand Bar a as a unique social, cultural, and political phenomenon.

"I began my research thinking I was going to be explaining Barca's rise to greatness, and I have, but I've also ended up charting the decline and fall."

Reviews

'Ultimately this superb book is about far more than football - it's about Spain, about Catalan culture, about the psychology of management, about developing youngsters, and crucially about the three remarkable men who have shaped the modern game - Cruyff, Messi and Guardiola.' * Daily Mail *
'This is a masterfully written history of the world's greatest football club. Ms que un book!' -- GARY LINEKER
'Simon Kuper's Bara has it all: riveting storytelling, superb analysis, non-partisan investigation and, perhaps best of all, it's shot through with Simon's wonderfully dry humour. Simply unmissable.' -- AMY RAPHAEL, author of 'A Game of Two Halves'
The chapters devoted to Cruyff, who played for the club and then transformed it as a manager, are essential reading for anyone interested in innovation or high performance. The book is both a debunking and a restoration. -- Ed Smith * The New Statesman *
One of the best sports books I have read. About so much more: politics, Spain, elites in business... brilliant on Cruyff and Ajax, Messi... quite outstanding. -- ROGER ALTON
Simon expertly charts the path from Cruyff to present-day Bara, showing how Messi, in his own way, represents an update on the Cruyffian style. His approach to a wealth of information about the club, along with his knowledge and passion for football, make for a really great book. -- JORDI PUNT, author of 'Messi: Lessons in Style'
What is the point of football, Simon Kuper asks It makes our lives a little happier than they would be without it. And the point of this book It makes our lives even happier. Kuper has written a great story, a history and an autobiography, a work of philosophy and gossip. It is the best book about sport, any sport, that I have read in a long time. An outright joy. An instant classic. -- BILL BUFORD, author of 'Among Thugs'
Simon's writing has been an indispensable part of football's landscape for the better part of the last three decades. His access to Bara has enabled him to tell a story that no one else can about the biggest club in the world, and its biggest star. This book both chronicles and analyses an era in football history that we're lucky to have witnessed, and that may never be matched.' -- BILLY BEANE, the inspiration behind 'Moneyball'
'Rich value here: five books for the price of one. Much more than a mightily well-researched chronicle of the rise and decline of FC Barcelona, Simon Kuper's Bara offers a masterclass on football, a brilliantly perceptive, anecdote-rich anatomy of the game's greatest team, greatest player, greatest coach and most influential figure.' -- John Carlin
'The best football book of 2021.' -- Matt Dickinson * The Times *

Author Bio

Simon Kuper is the co-author of bestselling Soccernomics. His first book, Football Against the Enemy, won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and is acknowledged as one of football's seminal books. Simon writes a weekly sports column in the Financial Times and has previously written football columns for the Times and Observer.