Tor! The Story of German Football

Germany did not have professional players or a national league until the 1960s, yet it became one of the most successful football nations in the world. Tor! (Goal!) traces the extraordinary story of Germany€s club and international football, from the days when it was regarded as a dangerously foreign pastime, through the horrors of the Nazi years to postwar triumphs and the crisis of the new century.

Tor! challenges the myth that German football is €˜predictable€ or €˜efficient€ and brings to life the fascinating array of characters who shaped it: the betrayed pioneer Walther Bensemann; the enigmatic genius Sepp Herberger; the all-conquering Franz Beckenbauer; the modern misfit Lothar Matth¤us. And even the radio commentator Herbert Zimmermann, whose ecstatic cries of €˜Tor!€ greeted the winning goal in the 1954 World Cup final and helped change a whole nation€s view of itself.

"Beautifully crafted... demolishes myths with the cold-blooded efficency of a literary Gerd Muller" €“ The Times