Soccernomics: 2026 World Cup Edition

Written by an economist and a sports writer who are, like many people, football fanatics. First published in 2022, it became something of a pheomenon, and has been fully revised and updated ahead of the 2026 World Cup, Soccernomics uses data to tackle a range of topics including transfers, why the England men's team has started to win, why the U.S. men's team can't seem to win, and whether or not hosting a World Cup is actually a positive thing for the host country.

While baseball had its moneyball revolution, in which sabermetrics were used as a way to scout and analyse players in the early 2000s, football analytics are still in relative infancy but you'll find loads of interesting facts and statistics in this doorstopper of a book. With every chapter of the book including updated stories and analyses, Soccernomics is a data-driven read that actually makes the numbers entertaining. A perfect gift for football fans and sports stats geeks ahead of this summer's World Cup.

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Who wrote it?
Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski

How does it come?
Paperback, 576 pages, 20 x 13 x 3 cm