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barca

You may remember from my last post it was speculated that Graham Hunter was in love with Barcelona. Now that I’ve read this book I can understand why—14 trophies in 4 years, you can’t argue with that.

Barca: The Making of Greatest Team in the World takes us behind the scenes of one of the most famous soccer teams of all time and shows us how it was created. Reading this book, it is as though you are standing at the water cooler at Camp Nou between the boardroom, changing rooms and gantry.

Barca explores how Johan Cruyff changed the fortunes of the club, the effects of the internal politics between club presidents Joan Laporta and Sandro Rosell and charts Pep Guardiola’s career as one of the most successful managers in recent history.

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Graham Hunter

Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World by Graham Hunter is The Podium’s book for February.

barca

The results are as follows: Barca with 83%, When Pride Still Mattered with 9%, Beware of the Dog with 5%, Bode with 2%, West By West with 1%.

A friend of mine told me recently that he’d read a few chapters of Barca and his verdict was that Graham Hunter was ‘in love with Barcelona’.

Hunter moved to Barcelona in 2001, he speaks fluent Spanish and Catalonian, and, more importantly, he is the only English speaking journalist to have interviewed Pep Guardiola during his time as Barcelona coach. It’s quite clear from the breadth of work produced by Hunter about Barcelona that he’s got the inside scoop.

At the moment Barca are at the top of the La Liga on 59 points, 9 points clear of Atletico Madrid in 2nd place and 16 points clear of their primary Spanish rival Real Madrid. On 20th of February Barcelona play AC Milan in the Champions League. It seems as though even after the departure of Guardiola, business has continued as normal for the unstoppable club.

Are Barcelona are the greatest football team in the world? Is Graham Hunter right? Let’s find out together. I hope you enjoy The Podium’s February Book, Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World.

I will be reading the updated edition which includes the departure of Pep Guardiola and Spain’s victory at Euro 2012.

Here’s Graham talking about Barca

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So here we go again. Five books have been selected loosely based on sporting events happening next month. Please read the below and then vote for the one you would like to see as February’s book of the month.

A few sports have managed to stay on the list from last month but you will notice the new titles all have a slightly different focus. This month the books are in line with the Super Bowl, NBA All-Star’s game, Soccer’s Champions League, Rugbys RBS 6 Nations and FIS Skiing.

Below are the nominated books. You can vote for the one you’d most like to read at the bottom. The results will be revealed on the 4th of February.

When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi by David Maraniss

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia; 1st Touchstone Ed edition (30 Sep 2000)

whenpridestillmattered

Ron Fimrite Sports Illustrated Forges a near-perfect synthesis of fine writing and fascinating material. May be the best sports biography ever published.

There are hundreds (perhaps thousands!) of books available that deal with different aspects of the NFL. There are books about championship teams, losing teams, managers, players, economics, politics and race. One name that jumped out at me though when I was researching for this month’s titles, was Vince Lombardi. Vince Lombardi was not only a legend of NFL but his is also the name on the trophy handed to the winning team of the Super Bowl. Lombardi is one of the greatest coaches of all time.

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marty_footballbooks

I hope everyone is enjoying Tylor Hamilton and Daniel Coyle’s The Secret Race, I’m just over half way through and it’s pretty full on. A complete page turner. And it’s just in time for Lance Armstrong to enter the Oprah Winfey Thunder Dome! I hope to have my review up on Monday the 27th of January.

Moving on.

Below are a list of major sporting events happening next month. If anyone has any suggestions for other events and books then please leave a message in the comment area below. On Thursday the 24th I’ll put up the 5 nominated books for February. Then after you all vote, the chosen book will be revealed on Thursday the 31st.

super-bowl-tickets-XLVII

Super Bowl XLVII

By February 3rd, 2 teams will have reached the Super Bowl. At the moment there’s a handful of teams still playing. On Sunday 20th January San Francisco play at Atlanta and Baltimore play at New England.

NFL on ESPN

NFL.com

FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2013, Nordic World Ski Championships 2013

To be honest I could write everything I know about Skiing on the back of a napkin. If there are any skiing enthusiasts out there, please fill us in. Especially about what we should be putting on the bookshelves.

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