"How Soccer Explains the World" by Franklin Foer

I recently finished it. While the book is a few years old, it's still quite good.

My quibble is with the subtitle. No "unlikely theory of globalization" is ever proposed, never mind proven. A better subtitle would be "A series of vignettes showing how Soccer connects to Politics, Culture, and Society." But that probably wouldn't sell as many books.

I am still eager to read David Goldblatt's "The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer," which Alan Jacobs recently enthusiastically recommended.

Jacobs' post also introduced me to Garrincha, a teammate of Pele's for Brazil, who I had never heard of before and I think is virtually unknown in the United States.