"Football is a pleasure that hurts"This unashamedly emotional history of football is a homage to the romance and drama, spectacle and passion of a "great pagan mass". Through stories of superstition, heartbreak, tragedy, luck, heroes and villains, those who lived for football and those who died for it, Eduardo Galeano celebrates the glory of a game that - however much the rich and powerful try to control it - still retains its magic.