Soccernomics (2026 World Cup Edition)

“[Kuper and Szymanski] do for soccer what Moneyball did for baseball—put the game under an analytical microscope using statistics, economics, psychology, and intuition to try to transform a dogmatic sport.” 

“Since the publication of the first edition of Soccernomics there have been several attempts to copy its content. Yet few authors in the world of soccer writing can tell a human story like Simon Kuper, and even fewer academics can write an understandable narrative with numbers like Stefan Szymanski. Together the two men raise the bar again, bringing new insights to an already great body of work that is accessible and interesting to the quant and casual reader alike. . . . I highly recommend you pick it up for yourself, even if you have already read the first edition. You will not be disappointed.”

“Fascinating.”

“With Soccernomics, the FT’s indispensable Simon Kuper and top‑flight sports economist Stefan Szymanski bring scrupulous economic analysis and statistical rigor to a sport long dependent on hoary—and, it seems, unfounded—assumptions. . . . Gripping and essential.”

“[Szymanski and Kuper] entertainingly demolish soccer shibboleths. . . . Well argued and clear‑headed.”

“Entertaining.”

“Soccernomics is the most intelligent book ever written about soccer.”

“It's quite a book....Soccernomics explains how the lessons of Moneyball (sports teams are not completely rational) apply to the world's favorite sport.”

“Using data analysis, history and psychology, [Soccernomics] punctures dozens of clichés about what it takes to win, and who makes money in soccer—and in sports in general.”

“[Kuper and Szymanski] have created a blend of Freakonomics and Fever Pitch, bringing surprising economic analysis to bear on the world's most popular sport...This mix of economic analysis and anecdote makes for a thought-provoking, often amusing read. Here, at last, is a British answer to Michael Lewis's baseball-meets-cash bestseller Moneyball.”

“[Soccernomics] is a sporting tale in the Freakonomics mode of inquiry, using statistics to come up with fascinating conclusions.”

“More thoughtful than most of its rivals and, by football standards, positively intellectual....Kuper, a brilliantly contrary columnist, and Szymanski, an economics professor...find plenty of fertile territory in their commendable determination to overturn the lazy preconceptions rife in football.”

“Kuper and Szymanski are...a highly effective and scrupulously rational team, combining the former's detailed and nuanced understanding of European football with the latter's sophisticated econometric analysis. With a remarkable lightness of touch, they demonstrate the limits of conventional thinking in football, as well as the real patterns of behaviour that shape sporting outcomes.”

“If you're a football fan, I'll save you some time: read this book ... compulsive reading ... thoroughly convincing.”

“Szymanksi has recently published the best introduction to sports economics... while Kuper is probably the smartest of the new generation of super‑smart sportswriters... fascinating stories.”

“[Kuper and Szymanski] basically trash every cliché about football you ever held to be true. It's bravura stuff… the study of managers buying players and building a club is one you’ll feel like photocopying and sending to your team's chairman.”

“It's a fascinating book with the potential to effect genuine change in the sport.”

“Small book, big wallop!....Entusiastically recommended to all soccer fans, general and specialized, as well as those thinking of becoming one,”

“Soccernomics [is] a sharply written and provocative examination of the world’s game seen through the prism of economics and statistical data. It demolishes almost everything that most soccer fans believe about the game and how professional soccer teams should operate.”

“Quite an entertaining read.”

“Wonderful book.”

“Soccernomics . . . remains essential reading for anyone seeking an analytical take on the game.”

“The authors take what ‘everybody’ knows about success and failure in soccer and subject it to rigorous empirical analysis embedded in good stories that carry the narrative along. . . . Highly recommended.”

“There just aren't that many interesting, intelligent, analytical books about the world's most popular game, but this is one.”

“Any sports fan ready to take on board new ways of thinking might, like me, never look at a penalty kick or a league table and certainly not follow a major international tournament wuite the same way again.”

“Many explanations [of England’s poor form] can be found in the book Soccernomics in a segment entitled ‘Why England Loses.’ (This is well worth a read for any English football fan; essentially, you overvalue your football heritage and undervalue the benefits of innovation.)”
 

“Oh, Rooney’s the best. [My son] Ben thinks that England might be in the top four, but that’s it. He knows the starting line up of every European team. We’re reading this very interesting book about football together, you know Soccernomics.”

“Quite magnificent—a sort of Freakanomics of soccer.”

“It's a really good book. If more people read it, they'd understand some of the reasons why England doesn't win. Everyone can have an opinion, but they back it up with stats.”

“Should still be compulsory reading for all poor suffering England fans.”