Home
sports
The Greatest Show on Earth

The Greatest Show on Earth

The Inside Story of the Legendary 1970 World Cup

by Andrew Downie

Imprint: Arena Sport

320 Pages, 6.15 x 9.2 in, 16pp b/w plates

Hardcover
9781909715967
November 2021
Temporarily out of stock. Ships in 8-12 weeks.

$24.95

Buy

Digital download
9781788853217
November 2021

$12.95

Also available digitally:

Apple

Casemate IPM will earn a small commission if you buy an ebook after clicking a link here.

Description
Authors
Praise

Shortlisted for Football Book of the Year in the Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year Award

Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Football Book of the Year 2022

One of the Financial Times Top 5 Best Sports Books of the Year

The 1970 World Cup is widely regarded as the greatest ever staged, with more goals per game than any World Cup since. But more than just the proliferation of goals was the quality of the overall football, as some of the finest teams ever to represent the likes of West Germany, Peru, Italy and England came together for a tilt at the world title. But at the heart of the tournament were Brazil; captained by Carlos Alberto and featuring legends like Pelé, Gérson, Jairzinho, Rivellino and Tostão, the 1970 Seleção are often cited as the greatest-ever World Cup team.

Using brand new interviews alongside painstaking archival research, Andrew Downie charts each stage of the tournament, from the preparations to the final, telling a host of remarkable stories in the players’ own words. The result is an immediate, insightful and compelling narrative that paints a unique portrait of an extraordinary few weeks when football hit peaks it has seldom reached since. This is Mexico 1970. Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth.

Andrew Downie is the Brazilian football correspondent for Reuters, and has lived in the country for almost 20 years. He has written on football for GQ, the Economist, the New York Times and the Guardian among others. He translated Garrincha: The Triumph and Tragedy of Brazil's Forgotten Footballing Hero, and is the best-selling author of the critically-acclaimed Doctor Socrates: Footballer, Philosopher and Legend. Now based in London, he still spends much of the year in Brazil.

"The author is...really a curator, gracefully piecing together first-person accounts from players who are still alive and inclined to share their stories." ~Wall Street Journal

For any football nurd out there it is fascinating because you don’t only speak about the beautiful final between Brazil and Italy, you go for the first round matches too. It is a really, really interesting read…' ~Monocle Daily

Phenomenal – a terrific read' ~Grant Wahl

An account of arguably the best football World Cup, told almost entirely in quotes from the men who played in it' ~Financial Times, FT Best Books of the Year