BOOK REVIEWS

The Fifty: Football’s Most Influential Players, by Jon Driscoll (Sportsbookofthemonth.com price: £12.96, saving £3.03 on rrp)

Those of us who have grown up loving the beautiful game may not admit it, but it’s fair to say that when it comes to assessing the influence of different players, including effective opponents, the average fan’s opinion is invariably coloured by a number of factors.

These include a subconscious reference to the team we support; to opponents we admire and whether we’ve seen some of the game’s greats actually play. We also show a bias to selecting players from the era during which we’ve followed the game.

Author Jon Driscoll has attempted to be as even-handed as possible when writing brief sketches of players he considers the 50 most influential footballers of all time, although it’s a task he tacitly admits had no correct answer. “The list isn’t perfect,” he says. “It was like completing a moving puzzle.” Still, it must have been a lot of fun – and hard work. The degree of research he has undertaken is impressive.

The chapter headings would whet any fan’s appetite: Dixie Dean, Matthews, Finney, DiStefano, Puskas, Pelé, Eusebio, Bobby Charlton, Yashin, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Dalglish, Zidane, Platini, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo. Who wouldn’t want to read about them all?

At first glance, readers might wonder why players such as Mesut Ozil or Justin Fashanu justify inclusion in such exalted company, but Driscoll is writing about influential footballers, which accounts for the presence of Bosman, Beckham and Jimmy Hill. It also means we receive a moveable history lesson, after which we should acknowledge our debt to footballing pioneers such as Charles Alcock and Nicholas ‘Jack’ Ross, without whom organised football wouldn’t exist. Ross in particular was a fascinating character who even captained the French cricket team in a fixture against Germany.

A similar level of research is evident when we learn of a game similar to football played in Mexico between 100-500 AD (one your reviewer hadn’t heard of ) in which players used their forearms, hips and buttocks to land a ball in their opponents’ court. On occasion, the losers would be killed. “Today we have social media,” observes Driscoll.

The author has attempted to be scrupulously fair, which makes The Fifty a hugely enjoyable, dip-inand-out read.

His perfectly pitched snapshots will send readers everywhere looking for full-length biographies of many of those featured here, even Mesut Ozil.