Purpose, Passion, and the Pursuit of Greatness On and Off the Field
Starred review from May 15, 2024
Even casual soccer fans who followed the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar probably knew of the death of soccer-writer Wahl from a ruptured aortic aneurysm as he watched, from the press box, the semifinal match between the Netherlands and his beloved Argentina, the eventual champion. Readers of this fine collection of 38 pieces, most of them about soccer and culled from Wahl's tenure with Sports Illustrated, will understand what the world lost with the author's death at age 49. Not only are these informed pieces almost effortlessly readable to aficionados and newbies alike, but whether Wahl is calling out Qatari officials for downplaying the deaths of immigrant laborers, questioning revered Princeton basketball coach Pete Carril for his "Darwinian" abuse of players, or running against Sepp Blatter, longtime president of FIFA, for the corruption that would take down Blatter and several other FIFA officials, the collection is suffused with both courage and humanity. Alexander Wolff, a fellow reporter at SI, sets the stage with a generous introduction to Wahl's life and craft. Recommended for any soccer collection.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Starred review from May 15, 2024
An assemblage of journalism by the late sportswriter. Just 49 at the time of his death in December 2022, Wahl, author of Masters of Soccer and The Beckham Experiment, was far more than an ordinary sportswriter: New Yorker editor David Remnick deemed Wahl's college-journalism profile of Vietnam War correspondent Gloria Emerson "among the very best student papers I've ever seen." Emerson was one of Wahl's mentors; another was the legendary sportswriter Frank Deford, "a hidebound soccerphobe." Yet Wahl, who concocted phrases such as "an angry parabola" to describe a particularly noteworthy kick, did more than any other writer to elevate soccer in the national sports conversation, having learned the game as an exchange student in Argentina. Wahl was just as good at writing about basketball, and he was one of the first to recognize the genius of a teenager named LeBron James, who "exists in a weird netherworld between high school student and multimillionaire, between dependent child and made man." His writing about the world's game was equally prescient--e.g., he discerned star quality in a little-known defender named Brandi Chastain. Wahl also had a fine eye for the infrastructure of the game: Doha may be a paradise for moneyed fans, but the author dug deep to show the terrible abuse suffered by guest workers in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup. Wahl was at his best when in some dudgeon, but he also enjoyed working a good conceit, reveling, for instance, in an Argentinian TV ad where tango, beer, and soccer meet in a scene "that could easily have been scripted by the writer Jorge Luis Borges"--one that hinges on a miracle that proves that God loves the game as much as anyone. A fine collection by a much-missed writer who was just rising to the top of his game.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.