Football is a pleasure that hurtsThis unashamedly emotional history of football is a homage to the romance and drama spectacle and passion of a great pagan mass. Through stories of superstition heartbreak tragedy luck heroes and villains those who lived for football and those who died for it Eduardo Galeano celebrates the glory of a game that however much the rich and powerful try to control it still retains its magic.The Uruguayan whose writing got right to the heart of football ... readers were never in doubt of the warmth of the blood running through his veins GuardianGaleano can run rings round our glamorous football intelligentsia When Saturday ComesStands out like Pele on a field of secondstringers New Yorker