Book Reviews — Scott Skinner

‘It's better to burn out than to fade away,’ sang Neil Young as the 1970s gave way to a new decade. It’s a rock and roll sentiment that could have been the motto of the North American Soccer League – the league that lived fast, died young but left a good-looking corpse and an underestimated legacy.

“The ASL lived fast, died young but left a good-looking corpse and an underestimated legacy”

Ian Plenderleith, in his hugely entertaining book Rock’n’roll Soccer, breathes life into a league largely dismissed in recent times as a failed experiment full of faded, jaded pros. Plenderleith does a great job of showing that the league represented so much more than that. He brilliantly captures the rock’n’roll hedonism of the NASL during its 1970s heyday - some of the stories are so crammed with star-studded rambunctiousness it conjures mental images of a cross between Escape to Victory and Boogie Nights.

“Plenderleith brilliantly captures the rock’n’roll hedonism of the NASL during its 1970s heyday”

But NASL was about so much more than glitz and glamour. For a league that could boast such superstars as Pelé, George Best, Eusébio and Johan Cruyff, the real heroes of the NASL were in fact the lesser-known journeymen pros who rubbed shoulders with the stars and experienced a new life in the US. Plenderleith gives these pros a voice and approaches his subject with flair and humour as he weaves his way through the rise and fall of the NASL. The grandiose plans for attracting fans and progressing the game are entertainingly examined – the grand folly and the inspired creativity. For every ridiculous idea the NASL, had there was an innovation that would be adopted by FIFA and become commonplace years down the line. In Rock’n'roll Soccer we finally have a definitive record of the rise and fall of the NASL.

“In Rock’n’roll Soccer we finally have a definitive record of the rise and fall of the NASL.”

Rodney Marsh, writing in the foreword, rightly judges that the book ‘does justice to the story of the remarkable rise and fall of a wild and uniquely glorious league’. In many ways, the mercurial genius Marsh represents the very soul of the NASL. His socks at his ankles, gold chain flapping against his chest and rock star mullet flowing in the breeze as he gets on his knees to showboat in front of Pele. Hey hey, my my – rock and roll can never die.

Ian's next book The Quiet Fan will be published by Unbound on August 23rd. You can find him on Twitter at @PlenderleithIan