Kicks, Spits, and Headers. The Autobiographical Reflections of an Accidental Footballer
Paolo Sollier
Preface by Sandro Mezzadra
Translated by Steven Colatrella
Kicks, Spits, and Headers documents two years of football by a self-proclaimed accidental footballer. Coming of age during the student and worker revolt of the 1960s-1970s, the Italian ‘hot autumn,’ Paolo Sollier brought these countercultural energies and Marxist politics on to the football pitch, inadvertently becoming an icon along the way. Here he describes, in lucid and humorous prose, the challenges of trying make sense of and balance the tensions and contradictions between being a professional footballer and a political militant.
“A classic of radical football literature, finally available in English. This is a real treat that must not be missed. – Gabriel Kuhn, author of Soccer vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics
“Reading Kicks, Spits, and Headers today allows readers to explore from a specific viewpoint the landscape of politics and football in the turbulent 1970s in Italy. It also delivers us the fragmentary contours of a project that deserves to be translated onto the conditions of our present.” – Sandro Mezzadra, from the Preface
Bio: Paolo Sollier was a professional footballer in the 1970s, then manager in the amateur leagues. He is author of the bestseller Calci, Sputi e Colpi di Testa, first published in 1976 and here translated into English for the first time.
