Danish Dynamite: The Story of Football's Greatest Cult Team
The Denmark side of the 1980s was one of the last truly iconic international football teams. Although they did not win a trophy, they claimed something much more important and enduring: glory, and in industrial quantities. They were a bewitching fusion of futuristic attacking football, effortless Scandinavian cool and laid-back living. They played like angels and lived like you and I, and they were everyone's second team in the mid-1980s. The story of Danish Dynamite, as the team became known, is the story of a team of rock stars in a polyester Hummel kit.

Heralding from a country with no real football history to speak of and a population of five million, this humble and likeable team was unique. Everymen off the field and superheroes on it, they were totally of their time, and their approach to the game was in complete contrast to the gaudy excess and charmless arrogance of today's football stars. That they ultimately imploded in spectacular style, with a shocking 5-1 defeat to Spain in the 1986 World Cup in a game that almost everyone expected them to win, only adds to their legend.

For the first time in Emglish, Danish Dynamite tells the story of perhaps the coolest team in football history, a team that had it all and blew it in spectacular style after a live-fast-die-young World Cup campaign. Featuring interviews with the players themselves, including Michael Laudrup, Preben Elkjær and Jesper Olsen, as well as with those who played or managed against them, this is a joyous celebration of one of the most life-affirming teams the world has ever seen.
1117011745
Danish Dynamite: The Story of Football's Greatest Cult Team
The Denmark side of the 1980s was one of the last truly iconic international football teams. Although they did not win a trophy, they claimed something much more important and enduring: glory, and in industrial quantities. They were a bewitching fusion of futuristic attacking football, effortless Scandinavian cool and laid-back living. They played like angels and lived like you and I, and they were everyone's second team in the mid-1980s. The story of Danish Dynamite, as the team became known, is the story of a team of rock stars in a polyester Hummel kit.

Heralding from a country with no real football history to speak of and a population of five million, this humble and likeable team was unique. Everymen off the field and superheroes on it, they were totally of their time, and their approach to the game was in complete contrast to the gaudy excess and charmless arrogance of today's football stars. That they ultimately imploded in spectacular style, with a shocking 5-1 defeat to Spain in the 1986 World Cup in a game that almost everyone expected them to win, only adds to their legend.

For the first time in Emglish, Danish Dynamite tells the story of perhaps the coolest team in football history, a team that had it all and blew it in spectacular style after a live-fast-die-young World Cup campaign. Featuring interviews with the players themselves, including Michael Laudrup, Preben Elkjær and Jesper Olsen, as well as with those who played or managed against them, this is a joyous celebration of one of the most life-affirming teams the world has ever seen.
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Danish Dynamite: The Story of Football's Greatest Cult Team

Danish Dynamite: The Story of Football's Greatest Cult Team

Danish Dynamite: The Story of Football's Greatest Cult Team

Danish Dynamite: The Story of Football's Greatest Cult Team

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Overview

The Denmark side of the 1980s was one of the last truly iconic international football teams. Although they did not win a trophy, they claimed something much more important and enduring: glory, and in industrial quantities. They were a bewitching fusion of futuristic attacking football, effortless Scandinavian cool and laid-back living. They played like angels and lived like you and I, and they were everyone's second team in the mid-1980s. The story of Danish Dynamite, as the team became known, is the story of a team of rock stars in a polyester Hummel kit.

Heralding from a country with no real football history to speak of and a population of five million, this humble and likeable team was unique. Everymen off the field and superheroes on it, they were totally of their time, and their approach to the game was in complete contrast to the gaudy excess and charmless arrogance of today's football stars. That they ultimately imploded in spectacular style, with a shocking 5-1 defeat to Spain in the 1986 World Cup in a game that almost everyone expected them to win, only adds to their legend.

For the first time in Emglish, Danish Dynamite tells the story of perhaps the coolest team in football history, a team that had it all and blew it in spectacular style after a live-fast-die-young World Cup campaign. Featuring interviews with the players themselves, including Michael Laudrup, Preben Elkjær and Jesper Olsen, as well as with those who played or managed against them, this is a joyous celebration of one of the most life-affirming teams the world has ever seen.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781408844854
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Publication date: 04/24/2014
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
File size: 5 MB

About the Author

Rob Smyth works for the Guardian and has also written for Wisden, Intelligent Life, GQ Style, Sports Illustrated and the official Manchester United magazine. He has also written four books.

Lars Eriksen worked for the Guardian before relocating to his native Denmark. He now lives in Copenhagen and has written for magazines including Vice, Playboy and The Gourmand.

Mike Gibbons has written for the Planet World Cup website, extracts of which have been republished in numerous books, including a full article on George Best's international career in George Best: A Celebration.
Rob Smyth is a specialist in modern sport history who has written for the Guardian, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, FourFourTwo, Yahoo, ITV, Intelligent Life, GQ and Virgin Media. He is co-author of Danish Dynamite, one of the Observer's Sports Books of the Year 2014, and was highly commended at the 2010 Sports Journalists' Association awards.

Table of Contents

1 Mr and Mrs Bignell 1

2 For he's a jolly good fellow 4

3 Alemano Bruto 19

4 Concrete illness 28

5 De Vlo Effect 41

6 Twin towers 54

7 The sparrow and the Shadow 66

8 The roligans 77

9 'If I had a gun...' 87

10 The first time 97

11 Poster boys 106

12 'The game' 116

13 Gloria Dana 129

14 'Re-Sepp-Ten' 140

15 For Denmark 151

16 A public fiesta of football 161

17 Pyrrhic victory 173

18 The worst time 183

19 The binary boys 196

20 Glory 207

21 When we should have been world champions 218

Bibliography 224

Acknowlegements 227

Index 229

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