50 Teams That Mattered

Football is littered with stories of teams who have left a huge footprint in the game that people still walk in today. From Real Madrid to Enfield Town, from Brazil to Blackburn Olympic, this is the story of 50 teams who have really mattered, whether you realised it or not.

The tapestry of football is littered with the stories of teams who have changed the game forever. From a group of friends and co-workers in Sheffield forming the first football 'club' in 1857, right up to the modern day with Spain's World Cup winner's of 2010, this book covers 50 of the most noteworthy in fascinating detail. As well as the usual suspects such as Manchester United, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Brazil and Ajax, there are also the stories of Blackburn Olympic, Corinthian FC, Eintracht Braunschweig and Enfield Town. Each chapter covers one team's moment in history and the impact they had on the game, from football's first athletes to its biggest failures, from the first team to lay claim to the title of the best in the world to the natural and beautiful evolution of the passing game, this is a book that even a reader with only a passing interest in football will enjoy. Tragedy, financial boom and bust, true greatness and some of sport's most emotional moments are all within, time to see how the beautiful game has made its way to becoming the monolith it is today.

Each team has a full chapter devoted to them in the following order -
Sheffield FC - 1857 Queens Park FC - 1867-93
Darwen FC - 1878-79
Blackburn Olympic - 1882-83 Corinthian FC - 1882-1939
Middlesbrough FC - 1904-05 S.G. Pro Vercelli Sezione Calcio - 1907-22 Exeter City - 1914
Arsenal FC - 1925-35 Uruguay - 1930 Austria - 1930-36 AC Torino - 1942-49 Millonarios - 1949-53 Uruguay - 1950
Hungary - 1950-56
Wolverhampton Wanderers - 1954 Real Madrid - 1955-60 Liverpool FC - 1959-74
FC Internazionale Milano - 1962-67
AFC Ajax - 1965-73
Celtic FC - 1966-67 Brazil - 1970
New York Cosmos - 1971-85
West Germany - 1972
Eintracht Braunschweig - 1973-74
Holland - 1974
West Bromwich Albion - 1977-78
Nottingham Forest - 1977-80
Brazil - 1982
Tottenham Hotspur - 1983
Argentina - 1986 A.C. Milan - 1987-96 Cameroon - 1990
England - 1990
Colo-Colo - 1991 FC Barcelona - 1990-94
Denmark - 1992
Colombia - 1994
Nigeria - 1996
Manchester United - 1998-99
USA - 1999
Leeds United - 1999-2004
Enfield Town FC - 2001-02
South Korea - 2002
Porto - 2002-04
Arsenal FC - 2003-04
Los Angeles Galaxy - 2007
FC Barcelona - 2008-09
Spain - 2010