In soccer slang there are still suggestive terms between the tiredness of the hackneyed and the kick to the dictionary. If we analyze the term "false nine", beyond its meaning at grass level, we find an unparalleled dichotomy in the literary and even in the philosophical.
Abstracted from any football connotation, a "false nine" is attentive to mathematics and approaches the esoteric, and Philip kerr has managed to rescue that denomination to give title to a mystery novel about the most universal of sports. Certainly the narrative proposal reminds me of my novel Real Zaragoza 2.0, which I took years ago on paper and which can be obtained now on Amazon for only € 2, with its prologues by illustrious footballers such as Alberto Zapater or Xavi Aguado.
Mystery, goals and a dark side around football. Similar topics to make clear what we already intuited, that economic interests pervert everything ..., or at least transform it. Until someone gets out of hand ...
Scott Manson is the protagonist of this novel. A coach subjected to the frenzy of a market in which disappearing from the front line can be a complete forgetfulness. A position as a mister in Shanghai seems to be the only possible horizon. And yet Barça also knocks on his door, only for a very different function.
A missing franchise footballer, a coach like Scott Manson busy finding him ..., a world of sports gutted on the channel to discover its guts, the internal organism of such a beautiful sport seems to be inhabited by parasites capable of everything to transact commissions, to increase salaries ... , to the point that everything will be considered lawful for the Machiavellian end.
Scott Manson gets to know the world of football that he loved so much in his absolute contemplation. Touring cities around the world in the footsteps of the missing person, you will find reasons to distrust everything.
You can now buy the novel False nine, the new novel by Philip Kerr, here: