Simon Kuper

Barça by Simon Kuper offers an unparalleled dive into the extraordinary evolution of FC Barcelona, one of the globe’s most revered football clubs. This meticulously researched book explores how a regional team transformed into a sporting titan, setting benchmarks in excellence, innovation, and unrivalled success. Kuper's narrative does not merely recount matches or tournaments; instead, it delves deeply into the...

‘Magnificent… Freakonomics for football’ – Guardian Football truly is the world’s favourite game, followed in over 200 countries by hundreds of millions of people pouring their hearts and souls into supporting their chosen team every week. But behind the passion are questions that all true football aficionados want answered: has football spending spun out of control? How much do managers...

From the bestselling author of Chums comes an explorer's tale of a naif getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel city. Simon Kuper has experienced Paris both as a human being and as a journalist. He has grown middle-aged there, eaten the croissants, taken his children to countless football matches on freezing Saturday mornings in the city's...

At a time when democracy feels threatened, Simon Kuper is fighting hard for a better vision of politics - he is brutally honest about our problems but never loses hope that we can build a better democracy Rory Stewart An intelligible, compelling and enraging narrative ... how the Good Chaps get away with it New Statesman The 'Good Chaps' theory...

The Sunday Times Bestseller and Times Best Book of 2022 Power. Privilege. Parties. It's a very small world at the top. Brilliant ... traces Brexit back to the debating chambers of the Oxford Union in the 1980s - James O'Brien A searing onslaught on the smirking Oxford insinuation that politics is all just a game. It isn't. It matters -...

A deeply human read, wonderfully written, on the foibles of a fascinating, flawed, treacherous and sort of likeable character. - Philippe Sands Those people who were betrayed were not innocent people. They were no better nor worse than I am. It's all part of the intelligence world. If the man who turned me in came to my house today, I'd...

The classic bestseller that changed how the world thinks about football 'Quite magnificent – a sort of Freakanomics of football.' Jonathan Wilson, Guardian 'If you're a football fan, I'll save you some time: read this book' Daily Telegraph Football truly is the world’s favourite game, followed in over 200 countries by hundreds of millions of people pouring their hearts and...

Kuper is a shrewd observer in this entertaining mix of memoir and anthropology The Sunday Times From the bestselling author of Chums comes an explorer's tale of a naïf getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel city. Simon Kuper has experienced Paris both as a human being and as a journalist. He has grown middle-aged there, eaten...

The football World Cup is the biggest sporting competition on Earth - a chance every four years for the greatest players to win international glory, and a month-long media spectacle that's watched by an audience of billions. But the tournament has changed beyond recognition since the inaugural event in Montevideo, Uruguay, in July 1930. What was once a semi-professional meeting...