A Heart for Football: Remarkable Comments on the Most Important Sideshow in the World: Football

Frank Raes has had a passion for football for many years, as a player, as a reporter, as a commentator, as a presenter and as a writer of columns in De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad. In April 2009 he unexpectedly had to undergo open-heart surgery. That suddenly pushed football to an unimportant corner.
The historic test matches between Standard and Anderlecht passed him by in full rehabilitation. Football hardly mattered anymore. Only the dazzling game of Barcelona in the final of the Champions League rekindled his love. Football soon turned out to be the most important side issue in the world.
Frank Raes collected his most fascinating pieces on domestic and foreign football in this book. He combats the doom-mongering surrounding Belgian football, looks through the steamed-up glasses of the association chairman, tries to look into the minds of René Vandereycken and Jacky Matthijsen, sings the praises of Boussoufa's talent and the strength of Standard, regrets Hassan's departure, thinks that Cannavaro is over- and Eto'o underestimated, asks for understanding for David Beckham's hellish existence, cheers on Maradona's return, goes in search of Glen De Boeck's roots, wonders whether Enzo Scifo is a good trainer and whether Tia Hellebaut really trained so much harder than the average footballer. At the end, he declares mountain climber Reinhold Messner the greatest sportsman of all time.
In A Heart for Football, Raes analyses, relativizes and ironizes 21st century football.