There are portraits of the lower levels as well as the big league, stories of then and now that celebrate the characters he met pitch-side. From Aue in the Erzgebirge mountains to Rostock on the Baltic Sea, this quirky account of his whistle-stop tour is for fans who know that football clubs are the beating hearts of the places they play for. He revisits the 14 clubs that made up the 1989 DDR-Oberliga, East Germany's top flight. Michael Wagg goes in search of hidden histories and footballing ghosts from before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Honigstein's detail is superb.” - Aidan Smith, Scotland on Sunday A fine account of how Germany reclaimed hegemony.” - Guardian “German football boasts not only the World Cup, but superb writers.

In Das Reboot, journalist and television pundit Raphael Honigstein charts the return of German football - how did German football transform itself from its efficient, but unappealing and defensively minded traditions to the free-flowing, attacking football that was on display during the last World Cup? The answer takes him from California to Stuttgart, from Munich to the Maracaná, via Dortmund and Durban.

The goal wins Germany the World Cup for the first time in almost twenty-five years. Landing on his left foot, he takes a step with his right, swivels, and in one fluid motion, without the ball touching the ground, volleys it past the onrushing Argentine goalkeeper into the far corner of the net. Germany forward Mario Götze, receiving a floated pass from his international teammate André Schürrle, jumps slightly to meet the ball and cushion it with his chest. Packed with exclusive interviews with key protagonists, Raphael Honigstein’s book lifts the lid on the secrets of German football’s success.ġ3th July 2014, World Cup Final, the last ten minutes of extra time. ‘Football is a simple game 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win’ Gary Lineker

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