Angels With Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina

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ANGELS WITH DITY FACES is the definitive history of a great footballing nation and its many paradoxes. Wilson, as you would expect from the author of several important books on football history and tactics, goes far deeper than the stereotype. But I guess Maradona is the physical embodiment of the soul of the nation, a character trait that the people can relate to. Nobby Stiles was dismissed in Buenos Aires after committing 10 of United’s 17 fouls (against 35 by the Argentinians) during the match, eight of them on Carlos Bilardo, his opposite number, and having suffered a wound from a head-butt as the home team won 1-0.

Argentina is a nation obsessed with football, and Jonathan Wilson, having lived there on and off during the last decade, is ideally placed to chart the five phases of Argentinian football: the appropriation of the British game; the golden age of la nuestra, the exuberant style of playing that developed as Juan Perón led the country into isolation; a hardening into the brutal methods of anti-fútbol; the fusing of beauty and efficacy under César Luis Menotti; and the ludicrous (albeit underachieving) creative talent of recent times. There had been a warning a year earlier when Celtic faced another Argentinian team, Racing Club, in the same competition. Argentina is a volatile country and football violence has been part of the game, from the very earliest days up the emergence of the barras bravas. Between an early goal by Juan Ramón Verón – father of Juan Sebastián, later to play for both clubs – and the unavailing late equaliser by Willie Morgan, many other brutalities went unpunished. His latest book, Angels with Dirty Faces, traces the story of football in Argentina from its development and spread in the late 19th century to the present day, taking in the myriad instances of triumph, failure, glory and disgrace which have occurred along the way.From an early age, Maradona was familiarized with the idea that pharmaceutical assistance was normal and natural. His eagerness to gain the full context of the eras of the Argentinian game is also shown with regular digressions into the history of the country’s politics, economy and culture.

Perhaps the defining theme of this book is that Argentina, invariably perceived as an El Dorado waiting to be discovered and exploited, has never lived up to that Utopian potential, thus engendering disillusionment and cynicism. It is these stories which explain the ongoing fascination with the unique, flawed phenomenon that is Argentinian football, and it is these stories which will stay with me after reading this book. Even the supply of talent seemed to have dried up: the youth team won the FIFA Under-20 World Cup five times between 1995 and 2007 but had failed to translate this into success at senior level, with six major finals lost between 2004 and 2016.I’m docking off half a star because it sometimes felt like I was getting lost in what felt like unnecessary details of insignificant games. Jonathan Wilson, having lived there on and off during the last decade, is ideally placed to chart the sport’s development in a country that, perhaps more than any other, lives and breathes football, its theories and its myths. It’s estimated as many as 500 babies were taken from dissident parents and adopted by military families. It is within this chaos that multiple generations of talents emerge, from a population of just 25 million people.