It was Pele, of course, who predicted back in 1977 that an African nation would lift the World Cup before the end of the twentieth century. While that didn't quite work out, South Africa is to be the first African country to host the World Cup finals, in 2010. It will be the first time the World Cup has been held in one of the world's poorer countries since Mexico in 1986. When the finals were (finally) awarded to South Africa people broke down in the streets crying, overcome with happiness; the sense of achievement and of validation for a new nation felt by a population that has undergone the horrors of apartheid and a HIV pandemic cannot be underestimated. This is South Africa's attempt to show a new face to the world, and is also the background against which Simon Kuper begins his personal, political and footballing journey to the heart of a nation obsessed by the beautiful game.
Taking in interviews along the way with the likes of Nelson Mandela, ordinary African football fans and players, Fifa executives and other prominent writers and commentators on African football, Simon Kuper will intertwine the stories of South Africans from all walks of life to provide a vivid portrait, the definitive volume on South Africa and football.
- ISBN10 0752886029
- ISBN13 9780752886022
- Publish Date 3 September 2009
- Publish Status Cancelled
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Orion Publishing Co
- Imprint Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 304
- Language English