Fathers of Football

Great Britons Who Took Football to the World

Keith Baker

• Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785310263
• Year: 2015

The long-overlooked story of a number of adventurous Britons who left their homeland before World War I to inspire and shape the growth of modern soccer in continental Europe and South America. Drawn from widely different backgrounds, their motivations and contributions were diverse—helping to form legendary clubs now supported by millions across the globe; bringing revolutionary changes to the way soccer was taught and played; and laying the foundations on which the game would continue to flourish. Full of entertaining accounts and anecdotes from the birth of the global game, Fathers of Football places the lives of these innovators soundly in historical and social context. They all left a deep and lasting impression on soccer in the countries they worked in; yet for too long Britain turned its back on their lessons and achievements. Even today they remain largely unknown—prophets more honored abroad than at home.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• James Spensley – The English Doctor and Mister Garbutt
• Alfred Edwards and Herbert Kilpin – Papa Edwards and Il Lord
• The Charnock Brothers – The Moscow Connection
• Fred Pentland – The Man in the Bowler Hat
• The Witty Brothers – Two Englishmen in Barcelona
• Johnny Madden – The Iron Grandfather
• Jimmy Hogan – The Parson
• The Hogg Brothers and Alexander Hutton – The Birth of Argentine Football
• Charles Miller – The Nipper
• Some Further Reading
• Photographs