Africa United

A fascinating modern history of Africa to tie-in with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa

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A superb, modern-day portrait of Africa, told through the game that unites it.

Football inspires competition and inflames passions nowhere as strongly as in Africa. Travelling across thirteen countries, from Cairo to the Cap, Steve Bloomfield meets players and fans, politicians and rebel leaders, and discovers the role that football has played in shaping the continent. He recounts how football has helped to prop up an authoritarian regime in Egypt, end a conflict in Cote d'Ivoire and provide a tiny ray of light in war-torn Somalia.

Meanwhile, the influence of African football continues to spread rapidly through Europe. Today, no Premiership team is complete without a major African star - Drogba, Essien, Touré, Adebayor, and Kanu. Countless African players are now enriching English football and becoming household names.

Steve Bloomfield's wide-ranging and incisive book investigates Africa's love of football, its increasing global influence, the build-up to the 2010 World Cup and the social and political backdrop to the greatest show on earth.