Contemporary Authors

• Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics Nation Books (New York, NY), 2013
• Angels with Dirty Faces: How Argentinian Soccer Defined a Nation and Changed the Game Forever Nation Books (New York, NY), 2016

1. Angels with dirty faces : how Argentinian soccer defined a nation and changed the game forever https://lccn.loc.gov/2016009501 Wilson, Jonathan, 1976- author. Angels with dirty faces : how Argentinian soccer defined a nation and changed the game forever / Jonathan Wilson. New York : Nation Books, [2016] pages cm GV944.A7 W55 2016 ISBN: 9781568585512 (pbk.) 2. Inverting the pyramid : the history of soccer tactics https://lccn.loc.gov/2013010268 Wilson, Jonathan, 1976- Inverting the pyramid : the history of soccer tactics / Jonathan Wilson. New York : Nation Books, [2013] xxii, 418 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 21 cm GV943 .W555 2013 ISBN: 9781568587387 (softcover)

• Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Wilson_(writer)

  Jonathan Wilson (writer)
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Jonathan Wilson
  Born 9 July 1976 (age 40)
  Sunderland, England
  Nationality British
  Occupation Author, Journalist
  Jonathan Wilson (born 9 July 1976) is a British sports journalist and author who writes for a number of publications, including The Guardian, The Independent and Sports Illustrated. He is a columnist for World Soccer, bettingexpert[1] and founder and editor of The Blizzard. He also appears on The Guardian's football podcast, "Football Weekly".[2][3]

  Contents [hide]
  1 Journalism
  2 Books
  3 References
  4 External links
  Journalism[edit]
  Wilson has written for The Independent, FourFourTwo magazine and The Daily Telegraph, and was football correspondent for the Financial Times from 2002 to 2006. He writes for The Guardian, Sports Illustrated and Bleacher Report and is a columnist for World Soccer.

  In 2011 he founded the quarterly football journal The Blizzard, which he edits.[4]

  Wilson is the main contributor to a feature on The Guardian website, "The Question", in which he analyzes modern trends and evolutions in football. "The Question" has included articles on the decline of the box-to-box midfielder, the importance of the modern full-back and the evolution of the defensive striker.[5]

  His book Inverting the Pyramid was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2008,[6] and won 'Best Football Book' at the British Sports Book Awards in 2009.[7]

Wilson, Jonathan. Angels with Dirty Faces: How
Argentinian Soccer Defined a Nation and Changed the
Game Forever
Tyler Hixson
Library Journal.
141.14 (Sept. 1, 2016): p114.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text: 
Wilson, Jonathan. Angels with Dirty Faces: How Argentinian Soccer Defined a Nation and Changed the Game Forever. Nation: Perseus. Aug.
2016.448p. notes, bibliog. index. ISBN 9781568585512. pap. $17.99; ebk. ISBN 9781568585529. SPORTS
Argentina has been at the pinnacle of world football for decades, consistently fielding the sport's best players. Lionel Messi has followed in the
footsteps of other giants such as Alfredo di Stefano; Daniel Passarella; Gabriel Batistuta; and Diego Maradona, one of the best and most
controversial footballers of all time. Wilson (Inverting the Pyramid) lived in Buenos Aires next to the Estadio Tomas Adolfo Duco, the stadium of
Huracan, and here describes the evolution of Argentinian football against the backdrop of the country's most turbulent political times: Peronism,
the almost constant rotation of military juntas and dictators, and near economic collapse. The author shows how politics and football have always
been inextricably linked in Argentina, a country that lives and breathes the sport. Wilson intertwines narratives following the history of
Argentina's national team and domestic league, along with the country itself, to highlight how each relies on and informs the other. Interviews
with former players, managers, and journalists provide colorful anecdotes about famous games in Argentinian history, which football fans will
find enjoyable. VERDICT An intelligent and thorough look at one of football's most volatile and passionate nations. A must-read for football
fans.--Tyler Hixson, Library Journal
Hixson, Tyler
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
6/23/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Hixson, Tyler. "Wilson, Jonathan. Angels with Dirty Faces: How Argentinian Soccer Defined a Nation and Changed the Game Forever." Library
Journal, 1 Sept. 2016, p. 114. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA462044915&it=r&asid=4928fef118cae88fa8b89a946c7f34bc. Accessed 23 June
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A462044915

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6/23/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Wilson, Jonathan: ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 15, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text: 
Wilson, Jonathan ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES Nation Books/Perseus (Adult Nonfiction) $17.99 8, 23 ISBN: 978-1-56858-551-2
The history of soccer and its singular place in Argentine society.Guardian and Sports Illustrated journalist Wilson (The Anatomy of Liverpool: A
History in Ten Matches, 2013, etc.) is one of the most accomplished journalists and popular historians of soccer. In this ambitious book, he shows
the development of Argentine soccer from the 19th century, when a large British expatriate community introduced it, through its spread across
Argentina and its rapid emergence as the sport of the masses and to its place as one of the country's most visible cultural phenomena. From the
national team's early (and still fertile) rivalry with Uruguay to its enduring struggle with Brazil for continental glory, Wilson explores not only the
revered Albiceleste (named after the colors that make up the national team's uniforms) and its many successes (and occasional droughts), but also
the leagues and teams that Argentineans support and the players who have gone on to become international icons. These include superstars
Alfredo Stefano Di Stefano, Diego Maradona, and Lionel Messi, all three of whom would be on just about any serious list of the top 10 players of
all time. Wilson also interweaves the developments in Argentine soccer with larger trends in the country's sometimes-optimistic, often tragic
history. The author has a fine eye for detail and a solid grasp of the big picture. He writes confidently about the sport, including tactics and
strategies, but also about social and political questions, and he reveals how the three have been inextricably linked over generations. In the run-up
to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, a number of good books on Latin American soccer appeared, with most naturally focusing on the host nation.
Here's an insightful contribution about the other giant of Latin American soccer. A sprawling, vibrant book about soccer in Argentina, a country
where the sport is every bit as important and reflective of the society as it is anywhere in the world.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Wilson, Jonathan: ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA455212664&it=r&asid=d6b0449c1783f8d92b39007ce30454bb. Accessed 23 June
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A455212664

---

6/23/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1498243561291 4/4
Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics. Rev.
ed
Keir Graft
Booklist.
110.7 (Dec. 1, 2013): p10.
COPYRIGHT 2013 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text: 
Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics. Rev. ed. By Jonathan Wilson. Dec. 2013. 400p. Nation, paper, $18.99 (9781568587387).
796.334.
There are books about soccer teams and soccer men, soccer nations, the culture of soccer, the business of soccer, and fans of the game. But rarest
of all are really cracking books that explore the way the game is played. (And, no, we're not talking about manuals that show you how to kick the
ball.) Wilson, a respected journalist with a half-dozen books to his name, has produced a landmark work that explains what happens on the field
and why. Beginning with the earliest days of soccer, he charts first the adoption of rules, then tactics, and the evolution of tactics, with profiles
and mentions of the geniuses (Viktor Maslov) and dunderheads (Wing Commander Charles Reep) who stamped their marks on the game.
National character plays a role, of course, with chapters devoted to the blood-and-thunder English ("The English Pragmatism"), the defensiveminded
Italians ("Catenaccio"), and the share-and-share-alike Dutch ("Total Football"). While a remarkable work of sports scholarship, this isn't
for casual fans, and those who don't know their 4-4-2 from their 4-2-3-1 will definitely require a less challenging book.--Keir Graft
Graft, Keir
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
Graft, Keir. "Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics. Rev. ed." Booklist, 1 Dec. 2013, p. 10. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA353751676&it=r&asid=d73cd43d55f036db9c1bc30c9a84d884. Accessed 23 June
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A353751676

Hixson, Tyler. "Wilson, Jonathan. Angels with Dirty Faces: How Argentinian Soccer Defined a Nation and Changed the Game Forever." Library Journal, 1 Sept. 2016, p. 114. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA462044915&it=r. Accessed 23 June 2017. "Wilson, Jonathan: ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA455212664&it=r. Accessed 23 June 2017. Graft, Keir. "Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics. Rev. ed." Booklist, 1 Dec. 2013, p. 10. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA353751676&it=r. Accessed 23 June 2017.

• The Guardian
  https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/aug/06/bittersweet-memories-england-argentina-football-conflict-angels-dirty-faces
  Word count: 1268

  Bittersweet memories of England and Argentina where football and conflict collide
  Richard Williams
  Richard Williams
  Jonathan Wilson’s new book, Angels with Dirty Faces, surveys the history of mutual misunderstanding between the two cultures and reminds us of the beautiful sights we may have missed
  World Cup quarter-final, 1966, Wembley Stadium, German referee Kreitlin is escorted off the pitch by police
  The referee Rudolf Kreitlin is escorted off the pitch by police at the end of a volatile World Cup quarter-final at Wembley after Argentina’s captain Antonio Rattín had been sent off in the defeat by England. Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images
  Saturday 6 August 2016 03.00 EDT Last modified on Monday 20 February 2017 06.29 EST
  In the light of subsequent events, it is amusing to learn that in 1948 the Argentinian football association imported eight British referees to help them raise the standard of officiating. Each was provided with an interpreter, a facility sadly lacking at Wembley 18 years later when the captain of Argentina wanted to communicate with the German referee of the World Cup quarter-final against England in order to establish precisely why he was being sent off.

  That famous confrontation between Antonio Rattín and Rudolf Kreitlein – which held up the match for several minutes, depriving one team of their charismatic leader while giving their opponents a helping hand towards a moment of destiny – was among the most prominent of several incidents that have shaped the footballing relationship between England and Argentina.

  Why not everyone remembers the 1966 World Cup as fondly as England | Simon Burnton
  Read more
  “Rattín was, without question, one of the great moaners of the 60s, forever pleading with referees,” Jonathan Wilson writes in Angels with Dirty Faces, his new history of Argentinian football. “On this occasion he seems to have been relatively restrained.” But those English fans who were watching, either in the stadium or on television, will remember the sense of disbelief that a sportsman could bring a match to a standstill by refusing to accept the rule of authority.

  It was the beginning of a long mutual misunderstanding, confirmed in the minds of the average English fan two years later when Manchester United met Estudiantes de la Plata in the two-leg final of the Intercontinental Cup. There had been a warning a year earlier when Celtic faced another Argentinian team, Racing Club, in the same competition.

  Ronnie Simpson, the Scottish goalkeeper, was hit by a missile and put out of the second leg in Buenos Aires before it had even started. A bloodbath of a play-off in Montevideo saw six players dismissed, four of them Scots. Bobby Lennox left the pitch only when ordered to do so by a policeman with a drawn sword while Bertie Auld somehow managed to stay on and complete the match, which the South Americans won by the only goal.

  In Wilson’s words, Manchester United’s two meetings with Estudiantes “picked up where Racing’s clash with Celtic had left off”. Nobby Stiles was dismissed in Buenos Aires after committing 10 of United’s 17 fouls (against 35 by the Argentinians) during the match, eight of them on Carlos Bilardo, his opposite number, and having suffered a wound from a head-butt as the home team won 1-0. In the second leg George Best and José Hugo Medina were sent off for fighting.

  Between an early goal by Juan Ramón Verón – father of Juan Sebastián, later to play for both clubs – and the unavailing late equaliser by Willie Morgan, many other brutalities went unpunished. Estudiantes’ attempt at a lap of honour was thwarted when objects rained down from the Old Trafford terraces.

  Ten years later there was a truce when Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa, two members of the squad who had just won the World Cup on home ground, arrived in London. Tempted by Keith Burkinshaw to join Tottenham Hotspur, they proved an adornment to the English game and are fondly remembered. The tragic absurdity of the Falklands war in 1982 prompted Ardiles to take a judicious sabbatical with Paris Saint-Germain, but he returned once the hostilities were over and his farewell match in front of a full house at White Hart Lane, on the eve of the 1986 World Cup, was distinguished by the presence of Diego Maradona, whose partnership with Glenn Hoddle – giving up his No 10 shirt for the night – against Internazionale was a joy to behold.

  Within a month, however, Maradona would be raising his hand above Peter Shilton to score a goal that reopened all the old wounds. To one side it represented a gleeful revenge for a hoard of slights going back way beyond the Falklands to the looting of Buenos Aires in 1806 by British warships under the command of Sir Home Popham. To the other it reinforced a belief that all South Americans were, essentially, cheats. The contretemps between Diego Simeone and David Beckham in Saint-Étienne in 1998 seemed just one more example of an eternal conflict between Argentinian wiles and English naivety.

  Wilson, as you would expect from the author of several important books on football history and tactics, goes far deeper than the stereotype. In terms of fine-grained and often original research, he is the football writer most likely to tell you that, back in 1905, River Plate’s first-ever opponents included a man who would go on to win a Nobel prize for discovering the role of pituitary hormones in regulating blood sugar in mammals. Equally, however, as a writer who knows and appreciates Argentina, he is prepared to take on the more demanding task of telling the story in parallel with that of the country’s turbulent political and social evolution.

  Against the constant rat‑tat‑tat of coups, counter-coups and assassinations, through the eras of Eva Perón’s descamisados and General Videla’s desaparecidos, football provided a sense of continuity, but it could not avoid being tainted by the violence and corruption of the society in which it grew. A wilful insularity, emphasised when Juan Perón kept them out of the World Cups of 1950 and 1954 in order to avoid the risk of demoralising failure, leads Wilson to this intriguing conclusion: “Essentially Argentinian football grew in isolation, without natural predators, which led to the development of an idiosyncratic but vulnerable style of play, one based on individual technique and attacking, and followed with a devotion that arguably no country has matched before or since.”

  Periods of economic chaos forced players to accept offers from abroad, wreaking devastation on the always chaotically administered domestic game. When England met Argentina in Sapporo in the 2002 World Cup, British journalists swapped players’ quotes with their South American counterparts, as is customary; this time, however, we broke the usual quid-pro-quo custom by giving them money, because back home the peso had crashed, the banks were boarded up and they were suddenly penniless.

  Mostly, though, in his densely detailed but absorbing book, Wilson reminds us of the better things: those we can only regret having missed, like the five-man River Plate forward line of the 1940s, known as La Máquina, and their equally devastating successors of the 50s, whose popular nickname gives his book its title, and those, from Ardiles to Agüero, we may have been lucky enough to witness at first hand, all the beautiful fruit of a bittersweet history.

  Angels with Dirty Faces is published by Orion on 11 August. Available at bookshop.theguardian.com

• Outside Write
  Book Review: Angels with Dirty Faces The story of football in Argentina has finally been told. “Angels with Dirty Faces” by Jonathan Wilson is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the mercurial genius, often intertwined with the violence, of the Argentinian game. I remember my one trip to Buenos Aires in late 2000. From the freeway, the city’s suburbs struck me as rigid, seemingly infinite juts of concrete, like a Georges Braque piece dressed in orange neon. Out of this sea of concrete rose the distinctive bowl of La Bombonera, home of Boca Juniors. Alas, the Xeneizes were not playing at home in the short time I was there, but everyone wanted to talk football with me. I even met an Aston Villa fan or, as he said in his thick porteño accent, “A’to Bee-jah”. There was no literature into the relationship between Argentinian football and the national psyche. Sixteen years on, this story is perfectly captured in Angels with Dirty Faces by Jonathan Wilson. Buenos Aires has the look and feel of a southern European capital about it, like Madrid or Nice. British engineers brought the game to the ‘Land of Silver’ in the late nineteenth century leaving their mark in the team names: Newell’s Old Boys, Banfield, River Plate, All Boys. RELATED Book Review: Behind the Curtain Wilson explains how the wider Argentinian population absorbed the game and the British influence faded within decades. Argentina was already competing on the global stage by the 1910s, thwarted by neighbours Uruguay in early Copa America and World Cup finals before beginning to fill their own trophy cabinet. He scores some very high profile interviews with past players, which adds real authority to the tome. [Continues…] Argentina’s politics and football At the turn of the twentieth century, Argentina was on course to become one of the wealthiest countries on earth. Its failure as a state as the century went on owes much to poor leadership and corruption. Coup after coup, financial collapse after financial collapse. Argentina is a volatile country and football violence has been part of the game, from the very earliest days up the emergence of the barras bravas. Its game has followed the fortunes of the nation; when the country struggles, its best go abroad. Wilson looks at the different styles of Argentina’s modern professors: César Luis Menotti, Carlos Bilardo and Marcelo Bielsa. He also covers the ‘Pibe’ identity, the scrappy street kid who makes it good on the pitch, encapsulated perfectly by Diego Armando Maradona. Maradona’s shadow is long in the last 40 years of Argentinian football, and he carries way more love at home than his closest comparison, Lionel Messi, who left Argentina aged 13. Messi’s move abroad is nothing out of the ordinary. Argentina’s domestic league cannot compete with Europe’s elite financially. Maradona played for Argentinos Juniors and Boca Juniors before his own move to FC Barcelona, and returned at the end of his career. Angels with Dirty Faces is wonderfully segmented into bite-sized chapters, meaning it’s both snackable and an irresistible page-turner. The history geek with a love of South America, Wilson provides a wonderful narrative as to how the game took off and why – in a country so used to division – football is often the unifying force. For more on Argentinian football. Check out our podcast with Buenos Aires-based football blogger Matt McGinn.
  Word count: 608

  Home » Book Review: Angels with Dirty Faces
  Book Review: Angels with Dirty Faces
  The story of football in Argentina has finally been told. “Angels with Dirty Faces” by Jonathan Wilson is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the mercurial genius, often intertwined with the violence, of the Argentinian game.

  I remember my one trip to Buenos Aires in late 2000. From the freeway, the city’s suburbs struck me as rigid, seemingly infinite juts of concrete, like a Georges Braque piece dressed in orange neon. Out of this sea of concrete rose the distinctive bowl of La Bombonera, home of Boca Juniors.

  Alas, the Xeneizes were not playing at home in the short time I was there, but everyone wanted to talk football with me. I even met an Aston Villa fan or, as he said in his thick porteño accent, “A’to Bee-jah”. There was no literature into the relationship between Argentinian football and the national psyche. Sixteen years on, this story is perfectly captured in Angels with Dirty Faces by Jonathan Wilson.

  Buenos Aires has the look and feel of a southern European capital about it, like Madrid or Nice. British engineers brought the game to the ‘Land of Silver’ in the late nineteenth century leaving their mark in the team names: Newell’s Old Boys, Banfield, River Plate, All Boys.

  RELATED Book Review: Behind the Curtain

  Wilson explains how the wider Argentinian population absorbed the game and the British influence faded within decades. Argentina was already competing on the global stage by the 1910s, thwarted by neighbours Uruguay in early Copa America and World Cup finals before beginning to fill their own trophy cabinet. He scores some very high profile interviews with past players, which adds real authority to the tome. [Continues…]

  Argentina’s politics and football

  At the turn of the twentieth century, Argentina was on course to become one of the wealthiest countries on earth. Its failure as a state as the century went on owes much to poor leadership and corruption. Coup after coup, financial collapse after financial collapse.

  Argentina is a volatile country and football violence has been part of the game, from the very earliest days up the emergence of the barras bravas. Its game has followed the fortunes of the nation; when the country struggles, its best go abroad.

  Wilson looks at the different styles of Argentina’s modern professors: César Luis Menotti, Carlos Bilardo and Marcelo Bielsa. He also covers the ‘Pibe’ identity, the scrappy street kid who makes it good on the pitch, encapsulated perfectly by Diego Armando Maradona.

  Maradona’s shadow is long in the last 40 years of Argentinian football, and he carries way more love at home than his closest comparison, Lionel Messi, who left Argentina aged 13.

  Messi’s move abroad is nothing out of the ordinary. Argentina’s domestic league cannot compete with Europe’s elite financially. Maradona played for Argentinos Juniors and Boca Juniors before his own move to FC Barcelona, and returned at the end of his career.

  Angels with Dirty Faces is wonderfully segmented into bite-sized chapters, meaning it’s both snackable and an irresistible page-turner. The history geek with a love of South America, Wilson provides a wonderful narrative as to how the game took off and why – in a country so used to division – football is often the unifying force.

  For more on Argentinian football. Check out our podcast with Buenos Aires-based football blogger Matt McGinn.

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