Book review: Top 10 of Football, 250 lists on the beautiful game

Top 10 of Football by Russell Ash and Ian Morrison

Whenever I enter a local bookstore, I always look if they have any books related to soccer; I just love reading a good book about the beautiful game. While I love biographies and autobiographies, what I especially love are the informational and statistic books, not only are these books a joy to read, but they always teach me something new.

It's hard to find books which carry in-depth information from leagues around the world, books that aren't completely focussed on the English Premiership, or just the World Cup. And when I read through "Top 10 of Football: 250 Lists on the beautiful game" I was amazed, not only did this cover the World Cup and other big tournaments like the European Championships in depth, but it also covered things like the top 10 goal-scorers of the Copa America! And that's just barely scratching the surface of the range and depth of information found in this great book.

I found out that the Belgian league was 4th in the top 10 oldest leagues in the World, behind England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. I learned about Josef Bican, a man only second to Pele having scored an astounding 537 goals in only 358 games! That's about 1.5 goals a game, having Bican on the field assured you at least a goal a game if not more! And that's just one man on one of these 250 fantastic lists!

The mighty Josef Bican

While at first you may think that a book comprised of just lists may be just a bunch of dates and numbers, it's much more than that. This book tells you an amazing statistic like that Arsenal went 49 consecutive games without defeat in the Premier League, then it'll go ahead and break down how the record started, what was going on with the team, with plenty of score-lines and information about the team, time-period, and league. The book also offers is a myriad of lists like the greatest World Cup goals, Champions League firsts, and worst disasters at football stadiums around the world. So it isn't a bunch of dry numbers and names.

There is plenty of information which never ends: from miscellaneous top tens, to historical top tens, this is one of the greatest books about soccer I've ever read. And it is most certainly the most informing book I've ever had, whether it be about the beautiful game's history or money, you're sure to find what you're looking for in this book. So next time you're browsing through bookstores, or you're online wanting to buy a book, be sure that you look for "Top 10 of Football: 250 Lists on the beautiful game" which you can buy here.