In The Great Game, Andrés Martinez provides a captivating exploration of America’s complicated and ever-evolving relationship with the two footballs of the world—American football and association football (soccer). Martinez looks at how a generation of sporting billionaires, tech and media conglomerates, women players propelled by Title IX, computer game enthusiasts, and immigrants have sought to end America’s sports isolationism—not by continuing to expand the reach of “their” games, but by turning their country into an unexpected power in the other, international, football—soccer. It’s a story of America’s changing cultural customs and demography, a tale of shifting business philosophies driven by technology, a fascinating examination of the evolving state of US sporting interests, as those with money, power, and celebrity seek to prevail in a global sport.

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