Can a football match trigger a war? Can football push back against the tyranny of dictatorship, or usher one into power? Kicking Off Around the World shares some of the incredible stories in which football clubs have been a mirror to—and a maker of—world history.

Ramon Usall shows that there is almost no contemporary historical episode that is not reflected in the trajectory of a football club somewhere. Taking the reader on a whistle-stop tour of the events that have defined the last century, we encounter anti-colonial rebellions, class conflict, Nazism, communism, national liberation struggles and sectarian strife.

Full of anecdotes, little-known facts and illustrations, Kicking Off Around the World mixes the grassroots with the greatest of all time; the unknown and the unforgettable. It looks at the women's game, football during the war in Ukraine, and stories of clubs from around the world: in Britain and the USA, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.