Harare Review of Books

320 pp. May 5, 2026, Restless Books. Non-fiction.

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Football (or, in one part of the world, soccer), like many other sports, has its mythology, intrigues, and heroes, its passionate fans and scandals. Unlike most other sports, its global popularity means that every four years, most of the world stops for about a month (an advert for a popular African cable company shows whole segments of people—in markets, on buses, in offices—fast asleep during the day because they’ve been staying up to watch World Cup matches).

Juan Villoro’s entertaining account is wide-ranging, and full of anecdotes. His intense fervour is clear—not just for his home team, El Tricolor, that he bemoans exists just to break fans’ hearts—but also for the beautiful game itself. Villoro tells of the sheer madness of Argentina’s rival fans of Boca and River and Brazil’s Flamengo vs. Fluminense, and the antics of men’s football’s rogues on (and sometimes off) the field of play: Suarez, Higuita, Zidane, Maradona, Mané Garrincha. But football has (fairly) uncomplicated heroes too: Franz Beckenbauer, Luka Modrić, Carlos Caszely, Pelé. Villoro’s passion is that of the true fan: he details all he admires in the technical abilities of the game’s biggest stars.

Among the many things you’ll learn are about football’s corruption and backroom deals—like Mexico’s attempts to reverse their 1990 World Cup ban—and even the geopolitics of football: Henry Kissinger reputedly went to Peru’s changing room with Argentinian dictator Jorge Videla to persuade Peru to lose against Argentina—which they promptly did, 6-0. 

There’s a little in the book about the women’s game—mostly how underrated and absolutely spotless it tends to be; also how these players have come to the sport through triumph over adversity—their gender counting against them in most countries. A section covers the “secret” (as in, unofficial and not very well-known) Women’s World Cup in Mexico in 1971. Villoro believes the men’s game could learn a lot from the professionalism of the women’s; however, this entire book is about how part of the charm of football is in its wild characters and scandals, not just the agony and thrill of results on the field.

Read this because the World Cup is on now, and also for stories from someone who has written about and lived for football for decades. There are inevitable gaps: not even Villoro could cover all there is in a single book, nor could he be knowledgeable about the sport in every part of the world. What he does share here, though, is captivating; you’ll pick up much that you can hold forth on over the next month or so to admiring applause.

Thanks to Restless Books for the DRC.

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Find out more about The Game at the End of the World on the publisher’s site here.