As a side note, Germany won the 1954 World Cup before they had professional football or a nationwide league, a fact that I found amazing.

By comparison, the Football League started up in the 1880s. Tor! takes you from the beginnings of football in Germany to how it was organised, how the clubs came into being, and why it was until the 1960s(!) that Germany had a national league, and it was the 1970s until there was full professionalism and no maximum wage. If only every book about football in other countries (Spain, Italy, Holland, France) was written more like this one then they'd be improved. This is a brilliant book about German football, the chapter about the naming of German teams is worth the money alone.

Fully revised and updated, Tor! is the definitive history of German football. 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 misfit Lothar Matthäus the coaches reshaping the modern game 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. 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 the postwar triumphs, the World Cup victories, and all the way up to the present day. 'without question the most entertaining historical football book ever written' – The Guardian 'In Hesse's capable hands, the history of German football seems more entertaining, unpredictable and scandal-infested than England's' – FourFourTwo 'Beautifully crafted, demolishes myths with the cold-blooded efficiency of a literary Gerd Müller' – The Times 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 uli hesse