The Soccer Syndrome: English Football’s Golden Age

The heady Saturday afternoon of July 30th 1966 at Wembley Stadium was the crowning moment of the English game, when Alf Ramsey’s team won the World Cup and the nation’s fanatical football public consummated their relationship with the sport they had invented.John Moynihan’s THE SOCCER SYNDROME is a celebration of that love affair. Written in the build-up to the tournament, Moynihan captures beautifully the mood of the national sport, from the days when football brightened up dreary post-war Saturday afternoons at the time of baggy shorts, Brylcreemed centre-forwards and such revered figures as Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney, to the Swinging Sixties with its heroes such as Bobby Moore and Jimmy Greaves.Written unashamedly from the standpoint of the smitten fan, Moynihan also regales us with hilarious personal stories, from waiting in vain for his hero Tommy Lawton’s autograph to watching the 1958 World Cup final in a Paris bar whilst trying to console a love-struck girl friend.These among other gems have seen THE SOCCER SYNDROME rightly come to be regarded as a classic of football writing.