Tor! The Story of German Football
By: Uli Hesse
Format/Source: Paperback; my purchase
Germany did not have professional players or a national league until the 1960s, yet it became one of the most successful football nations in the world. Tor! (Goal!) traces the extraordinary story of Germany’s club and international football, from the days when it was regarded as a dangerously foreign pastime, through the horrors of the Nazi years to postwar triumphs and the crisis of the new century.
Tor! challenges the myth that German football is predictable or efficient and brings to life the fascinating array of characters who shaped it: the betrayed pioneer Walther Bensemann; the enigmatic genius Sepp Herberger; the all-conquering Franz Beckenbauer; the modern misfit Lothar Matthäus. And even the radio commentator Herbert Zimmermann, whose ecstatic cries of Tor! greeted the winning goal in the 1954 World Cup final and helped change a whole nation s view of itself. This new edition brings events up to date, examining the effect that hosting the 2006 World Cup had on the country, and how German club football has become the most talked-about in Europe, culminating in the 2013 Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
I was recently on the hunt for football-themed books about the history of the sport (being the fan that I am). But as a Germany NT suppoter, it was a book on German football that interested me the most. At first all of my searches for this book came out as sold out or overly-pricey secondhand copies of this book. Then I learned that there was a revised edition of the book and that it was as recent as 2013. You may have seen my flailing a few weeks ago on Instagram when the book arrived 😉
