Depending on the edition you buy, the subtitle differs - mine says From Ajax to Zidane, the MAKING of MODERN SOCCER. I reckon this is a US print, going by the term 'soccer'. Regardless, this second book by Michael Cox is hard to put down. His first, The Mixer, focussed on the Premier League, whereas Zonal Marking takes us through the various trends and dynasties of European football since 1992 (a nice start point, thanks to the weird Euros of that year and the advent of the new back-pass rule).
The book gives us a chronological through-line of different countries and leagues, and discusses their respective influences via cultures, philosophies and managers such as (earlier) Cruyff, Sacchi, Gaurdiola and Klopp, to name a few. The chapters run like this in 4 year periods: Holland, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Germany and last (AND least) England. There are nice transition mini-chapters between periods of influence as well.
It's heavily researched, as the bibliography notes, and there are loads of little trinkets that had certainly passed me by - terms like trivella, gambeta and raumdeuter, for example. Highlights for me were the Italy and France chapters but the whole book keeps you gripped, if you're into this kind of thing, of course.
Finally, a quiz. Guess the player Cox is talking about here:
"During the mid-1990s, Serie A boasted the most staggering collection of world-class attackers ever assembled in one country.With billionaire owners investing vast sums in various top clubs, moving to Serie A was an inevitability for the the world's best footballers. Yet among so much individual talent, one particular forward represented Italian football perfectly."Answers on the back of a postcard, please.
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