Brilliant Orange:

THE NEUROTIC GENIUS OF DUTCH FOOTBALL

IN the first paragraph of his book the appropriately named author, David Winner, writes: ‘...this is not so much a book about Dutch football as a book about the idea of Dutch football, which is something slightly different.’

And therein lies the beauty, and the draw, of this book. Soccer books, in particular anodyne autobiographies, can be vacuous things at the best of times, but Brilliant Orange is nothing like that. Indeed, as Winner also states in that first page, his book also contains pages about art and architects, cows and canals, anarchists, church painters, rabbis and airports, but barely a word about PSV or Feyenoord.

But don’t let that put you off. On the contrary, Winner expertly peels back the myriad reasons that led to the birth of Total Football, that beautifully expressive style of play – a philosophy no less – that started in the Netherlands in the 1960s and was embodied by Johan Cruyff et al in the 1974 and 1978 World Cups.

Beyond that, Winner explores the Dutch football psyche through European club football, so if you’re too young to remember Cruyff, Johnny Rep and Johan Neeskans, there is plenty about Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Dennis Bergkamp for a young audience.

Also, try to get your hands on the 2010 revised edition, as it includes a chapter on that year’s World Cup and the shameful and not so brilliant display by the Dutch team in the World Cup final against Spain.