Looking for a classy World Cup Souvenir Guide Book

 

That year I bought a souvenir book/guide/programme which was slightly wider than A4 sized, firm glossy card covered, with high gloss pages and a good quality production.

 

The content included background bios for the teams involved, and the usual places to record results into the tournament tree.

 

2010 will overtake 1994 so I'm on the lookout for a similar publication and prepared to pay up to about $40 for a decent one.

Has anyone seen any decent/worthy World Cup books on our shelves yet?

 

Honestly what is up with New Zealand and football? I bet RWC stuff will hit our shelves heavily from February 2011 after the Xmas/New Year retail period. But the profile of the FIFA World Cup and AWs is pretty pathetic in this, one of the biggest years for the sport ever.

 

Where are the bandwagon riders when you need them??

 

I still have my 82 ladybird book with the scores written in in my kiddy writing though

 

 

Only a mag though

 

The Football Superstars mag referred to above by Bopman ($9.95);

Sporting Legends' World Cup Superstars 2010 - Australia & New Zealand Special Edition ($22.50);

Ryan Nelsen's Road to the World Cup - on special at Whitcoulls, $29.95 (down from $43.95)

 

There's also a sizable book out called "The Football Book", which covers the game as a whole - it's effectively a(nother) football reference book. $60.95 at Whitcoulls, and includes a 2010 World Cup chart.

 

The prospect of another two or three appearing on shelves before the end of May won't surprise me in the slightest.

 

 

Cheers,

 

JR

 

 

 

Nutha one on the shelves at Whitcoulls today, @ $27.99 - it's called "2010 Complete World Cup Guide", with a picture of Shane Smeltz on the cover. Looks quite sound - Australian-sourced.

 

There's another one due out fairly shortly, too - "All White Fever", by our old friend John Mathieson.

 

 

Cheers,

 

JR

 

 

Must say it's terrific to see the sports book shelves populated by so many football books at present. :-))

 

Some more additions to the World Cup library within the past week are:

 

All White Fever, by John Matheson ... $27.99 Warehouse;

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Fact File - the official junior book ... $13.59 Whitcoulls

World Cup 2010 Superstars ... $15.99 Whitcoulls - really good value for money, this one!

 

Plus those hardy quadrennials, which I haven't bothered buying because I got them four years ago, Brian Glanville's The Story of the World Cup, and The World Cup - The Complete History.

 

Both of these are around the $40 mark in Whitcoulls.

 

 

Cheers,

 

JR

 

 

 

My recommendations (have bought these at Whitcoulls or Paper Plus in Christchurch):

 

BEST READS DEDICATED TO THE ALL WHITES:

 

"All White Fever"  by John Matheson (Harper Sports, Auckland; 128 pages; covers whole of Ricki's AWs coaching reign from 2005 to present; chapter on '82 team; about half the book focuses on the WC qualifying campaign and last year's Confeds Cup; based on his own interviews/ research and interesting snippets from elsewhere; good selection of photos.)

 

"Ryan Nelsen's Road to the World Cup" by Ryan with help from Tony Smith (the Press newspaper and Fairfax team for SA): (Hodder-Moa, Auckland; 160 pages)

 Foreward by Sepp Blatter; First-hand account by Ryan starting with the Wellington victory in November and then going back through the qualifying campaign; good selection of stats and team lineups; some great photos- different selection to Matheson book; interesting and humorous pen portraits ofl the squad- who knew Si Elliott's nickname is "Dingo"? (so-named by US college mates who were geographically-challenged), apparently he's "the old, wise grandfather owl of the team...kind of like the Dalai Llama", dispensing advice in one-line aphorisms; capped by a useful assessment of our opponents in group F- apparently Ryan's mate Roque Santa Cruz of Paraguay is so good-looking, even Ryan's mum was "mesmerised" on meeting him...

Also carries two useful wallcharts to map match results: one for group games inside front cover, one for second stage onwards inside rear cover. Gives kickoff times for all games in NZ times.

 

GENERAL WORLD CUP BOOKS & MAGS:

 

"World Cup 2010 Superstars" by Paul Fisher (Parragon Books, London):

 (224 pages; 6 pages on each major country assessing players and prospects with plenty of photos, and stats on qualifying, poss. squads etc.; only 2 pages given to smaller countries like us- ranks our keeper & defence as 5/10, midfield 3/10 & attack 4/10, Aussies as respectively 6/10, 6/10, 5/10- and they get 4 pages too!; profiles of star players- but not any of ours, Aussie profiles are Cahill- one & a 1/2 pages + Kewell.)

 

"World Cup Superstars 2010: The 100 Best Players from All 32 Competing Nations" (Sporting Legends Mag, Anthem Pub., London):

 Published in Britain but is an Aust/ NZ edition with special chapter on the Down Under teams- an 8 page supplement- between pp. 34-35: "But if they can keep up their fitness levels, a disciplined and physical All Whites side could be more dangerous than they seem- their direct play caused the Azzurri problems in a 4-3 defeat last June. Stranger things have happened in football...";

That's pretty complimentary- but the main attraction of this pub is that all editions internationally carry the same "superstars"- including our own Ryan (p.35)and Rory (p.101)- whole page for each (half bio/ half photo).

Even the two large photos of Fernando Torres on his two pages are from the All Whites- Spain game at the Confeds Cup last year, and Vicelich in one photo and Boyens and Lochead in the other are clearly visible (pp. 126- 127).

 

got this one yesterday, agreed with great value and the stuff you get, cheers

 

Anyone seen any other interesting publications not mentioned on this forum- or comments on ones you've seen?

 

 Noticed the "2010 Complete World Cup Guide" with Shane Smeltz on the cover (predictably published in Australia) is quite offensive about the '82 All Whites in its NZ section. From memory when I browsed through it, it talks about the "ignominious results" of '82  in Spain and "erasing the memories." Not quite the way we see it here- those guys are our heroes, aren't they, and we just celebrate the fact a bunch of amateurs with professional attitudes managed to qualify for our first World Cup. They were never really embarrassed in any games in Spain either. Our two goals were two more than the Aussies in West Germany in '74 too.

That's not a selection of words guaranteed to increase sales in this country, is it?                

 

 

It's a good read. My copy has a huge laminated centerfold with with Ricki's, Siggy, Tim, Leo, Pasty, Lochy, Andy Barron, and James Bannatyne's signatures on it. Currently residing on a wall.

 

Just bought the Australian FourFourTwo magazine "Ultimate World Cup Pack" which comprises two mags: the Australian FourFourTwo magazine 2010 World Cup Special Edition; and a separate "Complete Guide to the World Cup" which has a few pages on each team & is similar to other publications (NZ gets one page, Aussies two- the same as Brazil, England or italy).

 

Pack also includes the Panini World Cup Sticker Album- NZ team stickers include all the Bahrain players plus Oughton and Pritchett who haven't made the squad (at least they are immortalised in Panini stickers along with Torres, Kaka, Rooney etc. !) They did guess right with Christie who does have a sticker too! 

 

Finally, includes a big glossy wall chart of all fixtures for you to write the results in (though times are all Australian)- and bizarrely, if you turn it over it has a big poster of Tim Cahill challenging for the ball against some rhinos in Africa!  So that's how he honed his awful tackle on Bertos in the Melbourne game... 

 

The magazine Special Edition does have a positive  article by Michael Lynch of the Melbourne Age entitled "Why New Zealand might do better than the socceroos come South Africa next month."

(heresy coming from an Aussie- how times have changed!) Turns out it's because he reckons our group is far easier than the Aussies': He thinks "on paperthe Socceroos are a far superior outfit" and  "I expect the Socceroos to prove that on May 24 in Melbourne." Oh well, that didn't pan out did it?

International focus- but a  lot of stuff on the Aussies (seven page Verbeek interview) and some on us (three page Ricki interview & three page Ryan profile). Ricki's approach to tactics in the Finals summed up by him as "Lets not play six at the back and hope Smeltzy gets one on the break." Also an eight page Fabio Capello interview. 

 

You also get a DVD "the Secret Training Camp" which is some promotional thing involving the Aussie team...

There's hardly any here

NZ publications=

 BOOKS: "Ryan Nelsen's Road to the World Cup" (see my description above);

"All White Fever" by John Matheson

MAG.: "Football+ Souvenir Edition: Superstars" magazine. A very good local effort.

 

A lot of the major British and Australian World Cup guides are also in the shops.

 

But check out both Whitcoulls AND  Paper Plus as I found they have different selections e.g. the NZ  published World Cup magazine "Football+" I have only seen at Paper Plus and not Whitcoulls in Christchurch. Whitcoulls in central Christchurch (Cashel St) has the biggest range and even a special World Cup display in the Sports Book section.

 

I'd like to give a special plug to the "Football+" magazine to add to peoples' recommendations above: it's  a local effort published in Auckland and just as good as the British and Aussie mags in the shops. Except it's better because it has a lot of local content on the All Whites: Nelsen, Smeltz, Herbert features; Rufer and Sumner interviews from '82. Mostly it consists of a rundown of all 32 teams. Overseas contributors include Simon Kuper the respected Anglo-Dutch writer.

Includes a bonus World Cup Wallchart to plot all the games and results with NZ kickoff times (which has a large All Whites team photo on the reverse).

It's 146 pages and it's only $9.95

 

A book in many stores to coincide with the Cup is "A Beautiful Game: Football through the Eyes of the World's Greatest Players" by Tom Watt, a British publication released locally through Hachette Australia. (Foreward by Arsene Wenger, Intro. by David Beckham)

Consists of chapters written by players themselves on their own experiences under different topics. Our own Ryan Nelsen contributes a piece on his experiences growing up and playing football in Christchurch. 

Percentage of the profits go to UNICEF to help disadvantaged kids.