WITH the great and good of the soccer scene slogging it out in Brazil at FIFA's World Club Championships, there has never been a better time for a close look at the good, the bad and the ugly of Latin American Football. Taylor moves from the rarefied air of the Bolivian altiplano to the steamy skills of Brazilian street kids and jinks cleverly into some murky, not to say mucky, corners; the Chilean and Colombian Sunday leagues on London's Clapham Common; the pitiful state of soccer in baseball-mad Nicaragua and the sponsorship frenzy that is Mexico. The book works as travel writing, as sports writing and as political writing - but it's also a gossip-hunter's dream, with inch-perfect quotes being volleyed into the net from every angle. Take Argentinian midfielder Juan Veron's verdict on David Beckham: ". . . much too cute to be a footballer. You don't know whether to kick his arse or give him a kiss." No doubt some of his compatriots will, over the past two weeks, have had no qualms about making the choice.
