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History of the World Cup: Ninety Minutes That Changed the World - The Complete Story of Football's Greatest Tournament, 1930-2026
Hardcover
Series: World Cup History, Book 2
Publisher: Absorbing History
Published: Jun 23 2026
Pages: 226
Weight: 1.04
Height: 0.56 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Every four years, the world stops.
Wars have been paused for it. Economies have bent around it. Entire nations have wept, celebrated, and defined themselves by ninety minutes on a grass rectangle somewhere on the globe. The World Cup is not merely the world's most-watched sporting event - it is the closest thing humanity has to a shared story.
History of the World Cup: Ninety Minutes That Changed the World tells that story in full - from the rain-soaked stadiums of Uruguay 1930 to the air-conditioned arenas of Qatar 2022 and the sprawling three-nation spectacle of 2026.
Inside you will find:
- The Maracanazo - how Uruguay silenced 200,000 Brazilians in the largest stadium ever built
- The Miracle of Bern - West Germany's impossible comeback that rebuilt a nation's pride
- Pelé at seventeen - the boy who arrived in Sweden and left as a legend
- Maradona's 1986 - the Hand of God, the Goal of the Century, and one man's grip on history
- The 7-1 - the night Brazil collapsed at home and the world watched in disbelief
- Qatar 2022 - a winter tournament that divided opinion and delivered drama
- The Women's World Cup - the parallel history FIFA tried to ignore and could not stop
- And much more...
This is not a book of statistics. It is a book of moments - political, cultural, and deeply human. It covers tournaments staged under fascism and military dictatorship, Cold War football played by proxy, the commercialization that turned a sport into a global industry, and the players whose names became synonymous with the eras they defined.
Whether you have followed the Cup for fifty years or discovered it last summer, History of the World Cup: Ninety Minutes That Changed the World is the definitive companion to the greatest tournament on earth.
Fans of football history, sports narrative nonfiction, and landmark global events will find this an essential addition to their library.
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