More than a sports book, Africa United tells how soccer keeps hope alive in across a troubled continent. It is an inspiring story of spirit, skill and doggedness in the face of hellish difficulties - in short it is the story of Africa itself

Tim Butcher, author of Blood River

Reading this book makes ... Read moreyou want to pack your bags and light out for the territory, however dangerous the territory may be . . . required reading for anyone visiting Africa for the world cup next month.
Giles Foden

Conde Nast Traveller

[Bloomfield] carefully weaves an intricate web showing how national politics and football intertwine, and that the whole continent is brought together by its passion for the beautiful game . . . the perfect balance of passionate prose and informed accounts of key moments both on and off the pitch.

Waterstone's Books Quarter

A fascinating account of how football lies at the very heart of African consciousness.

Waterstone's Books Quarterly

The ideal bluffer's guide to African football, history and culture.

Waterstone's Books Quarterly

Precise, succinct and empathetic, this is a fine addition to football's internationalist canon.
Jonathan Wilson

Four Four Two

[Bloomfield] has the experience and anecdotes to make his first book stand alone, World Cup or not . . . well researched, thought-provoking . . . quite brilliant.
Ben East

Metro

The contradictions of Africa - the extremely in glitter and poverty, the violence, the dramatic weather cycles and the wonderful, unbreakable optimism of so many people - lift through this book.

Irish Times

A journalist's continental odyssey . . . a beautiful piece of writing.
Simon Kuper

Financial Times

A fascinating account of how football lies at the very heart of African consciousness...the ideal bluffers guide to African football, history and culture.

Waterstone's Books Quarterly

Football, along with births, deaths and marriages, is a universal human rite. In Africa, it is also inescapable...Africa United goes off the beaten track to visit some of the continent's footballing minnows.
Daniel Howden

Independent

Well-researched, insightful and sometimes shocking . . . this fascinating book stands as a fine snapshot of a turbulent sport in transition on the continent.
Doug Johnstone

The Scotsman

Peppering his account with amusing anecdotes, Bloomfield reveals how football has ended a civil war in Cote d'Ivoire, provided hope for war-torn Somalia, brought some normality to the chaos of Zimbabwe and, less inspirationally, propped up a despotic regime in Egypt . . . this is a fascinating portrait of the political dimension to Africa's love affair with the beautiful game.

Irish Times

Although this well-researched book deals with corruption, massacres and genocide, it also shows how football can offer hope.

IP, Guardian

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