More Than A Shirt
William Hill Sports Book of the Year, 2025
LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
A GUARDIAN SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR
A WATERSTONES SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘A marvellous football book, although it is much more than that’ The Times
‘More Than A Shirt shows why geopolitics keeps invading the pitch’ The Economist
‘D’Urso’s simple conceit offers a sparklingly fresh snapshot’ The Guardian
Compelling and eye-opening, More Than A Shirt will change the way you think about the beautiful game’s most universal symbol. Football shirts are the sport’s greatest means of cultural expression, but a seemingly innocuous combination of colours, sponsor logos and materials can all reflect the social values, financial struggles and political ideologies of the day, as geopolitical issues increasingly seep into every aspect of the game.
Investigative journalist Joey D’Urso has travelled across the globe, combining on-the-ground reporting with unparalleled analysis to collate a list of the twenty-two football shirts that best explain the modern world. More Than A Shirt will take fans on a journey from Birmingham to Belgrade and onto Medellin and Mumbai, outlining how we can see the war in Ukraine in the shirt of Schalke in Germany, China’s foreign policy in West Bromwich Albion’s and why the French national kit embodies worldwide migration patterns.
A GUARDIAN SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR
A WATERSTONES SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘A marvellous football book, although it is much more than that’ The Times
‘More Than A Shirt shows why geopolitics keeps invading the pitch’ The Economist
‘D’Urso’s simple conceit offers a sparklingly fresh snapshot’ The Guardian
Compelling and eye-opening, More Than A Shirt will change the way you think about the beautiful game’s most universal symbol. Football shirts are the sport’s greatest means of cultural expression, but a seemingly innocuous combination of colours, sponsor logos and materials can all reflect the social values, financial struggles and political ideologies of the day, as geopolitical issues increasingly seep into every aspect of the game.
Investigative journalist Joey D’Urso has travelled across the globe, combining on-the-ground reporting with unparalleled analysis to collate a list of the twenty-two football shirts that best explain the modern world. More Than A Shirt will take fans on a journey from Birmingham to Belgrade and onto Medellin and Mumbai, outlining how we can see the war in Ukraine in the shirt of Schalke in Germany, China’s foreign policy in West Bromwich Albion’s and why the French national kit embodies worldwide migration patterns.
Reviews
Whether you binge it or snack on it, if you like football, football shirts, history or politics, you'll find lots to love in this eye-opening and insightful book, and you'll feel smarter for having read it. Fascinatingly detailed and painstakingly researched, with a real passion for the beautiful game - especially watching matches of all levels at stadia across the globe - that shines through.
Oligarchs, petro-states, narcotrafficantes, are just a few of the characters running football these days. Starting with football kits, Joey D'Urso brilliantly maps the political and economic interest that have come to colonise their iconography and the game as a whole. After you have read this book, "playing for the shirt" will never sound the same again.
Smart, warm and original... it will make politics nerds think differently about football, and football fans think differently about the world.
More Than a Shirt reframes the narrative about football's place in the modern world by scrutinizing part of its literal fabric
A day at the football is usually an escape from politics - but Joey D'Urso's revealing reporting reminds us that it's never quite so simple. This colourful book is a treat for anyone interested in both... or neither.
An engaging, original, insightful and introspective examination of football's relationship with politics and power. Joey helps us understand how football and the world operate.
One of the most original and innovative football books in some time, a "Parts Unknown" for the game, as well as football business and football culture. Joey's unique writing is perfect for that Bourdain role. You might be familiar with some of the shirts, but some of the stories from the brilliant on-the-ground reporting within will astound you. A book that will both enthral and seriously educate.
Engaging and original, D'Urso's blend of sport and geopolitics reveals the messages and subtexts of twenty-two modern football shirts from West Bromwich Albion to Schalke and beyond.
After reading this thoroughly resourceful and revealing book, you will never look at football shirts in the same way again.
Extensively researched and wonderfully written, Joey's book deserves to be read by all.
Joey D'Urso is a fresh voice and a tireless reporter, who takes the reader from China to Colombia via Nottingham. He's the first person to use football shirts to explain the world, and does it convincingly. Kudos and respect.
Once a cultural heirloom and piece of shared heritage, the football shirt is now a commercial opportunity, a political platform, a place for crypto sponsors and state actors to run riot. Football and politics is a genre that has been done to death in recent years, but there D'Urso's simple conceit - examining the soiled modern game through the prism of the shirt - offers a sparklingly fresh snapshot as well as a powerful reminder of the incredible global scope of the sport
Without question, Joey is one of the most intelligent and thoughtful journalists I've ever worked with. This book encapsulates Joey's brilliance as a journalist: big thinking and relatable - local, global, political, sporting. What does a rectangle-ish of colourful, sweaty polyester tell you about the contemporary world? One heck of a lot, it turns out - about belonging and identity yes, but geopolitics and economics too. This book is a brilliant idea, brilliantly researched and brilliantly written.
This is a marvellous football book, although it is much more than that.
Every page brings the reader at least a few 'well, I never knew that' bits . . . scrupulously researched
D'Urso has chosen 22 kits that tell a compelling story about the tangled, complicated relationship they and football itself has with an increasingly fraught geopolitical landscape... The result is an outstanding book... This is an ambitious book and its scope is enormous, but the talented D'Urso takes each chapter in his stride.
One of the best books on football I have ever read.
There's more to every aspect of football than meets the eye, and that's brilliantly captured here.
A meticulously researched book that reveals plenty about football and even more about the modern world.
More Than A Shirt shows why geopolitics keeps invading the pitch