Global Goals - How Football Became the Planet’s Lingua Franca

From prison-yard kickabouts in Yaoundé to TikTok highlight reels in Tokyo, Global Goals is the sweeping, deeply human story of how football became the world’s most powerful shared language. Journalist and cultural historian Luca Carrera charts the sport’s astonishing journey across centuries and continents, weaving together vivid reportage, archival detail, and the voices of players, fans, and reformers whose lives orbit the ball.We visit café ultras in Cairo, barefoot prodigies in Kinshasa, eco-engineers in São Paulo, and data analysts in Manchester bunkers. We meet women who played through bans, migrants torn between national flags, and fans who chant beneath drone surveillance. Along the way, we discover how football reflects and reshapes our politics, economies, faiths, and futures.Whether you’re a die-hard supporter or a curious reader, this book reveals not just how football took over the globe-but why it matters more than ever in the fractured world of the 21st century.