The Book of Lists: Football

World Cup fever brings out the football fan (and the football bore) in all of us. Here's my favourite football infowisp at the moment: some decades before Bruce Grobbelaar, one Harry Sharratt was also known for his entertainment value as much as his nimble paws. A favourite trick was to climb onto the crossbar for a seat during one-sided games. Sharratt's real claim to fame though is as the only player ever to be booked for employing a Mini Me to aid him, when one winter's day, he built a snow-man on his goal line!

This yarn comes courtesy of Stephen Foster's ragbag The Book of Lists: Football, an enjoyable addition to two bulging genres – trivia tomes and football books. Foster, a novelist who also wrote a well-received 2004 account of a season at troubled Stoke City, brings a slight literary touch to the genre, beginning each section with a short essay by a poet, novelist or academic. But trivia fans need not worry, as the book balances these corners of seriousness with pitchloads of froth and fun.

Much of the book has been gathered from the hundreds of football websites and discussion forums (fertile ground, if responsible for a few mistakes inevitably). One of the book's early highlights is a list of ridiculous injuries (Rio Ferdinand damaging a leg while watching telly and David Platt mown down by his toddler on a trike) and the book continues to supply such gems (did you know that the Argentinian goalie who put England out of the '98 World Cup joined a millennium cult soon after or that Chelsea fans used to routinely pelt Cambridge with celery sticks?).

Scottish readers will enjoy some tongue-tied moments from our famously eloquent managers (Sir Alex Ferguson: 'It's a conflict of parallels') and also Stuart Cosgrove's amusing '10 Reasons Why St Johnstone Are The Coolest Football Team In The World', which includes the mildly convincing (Ewan McGregor is a fan) and the downright cheeky ('they have won the Scottish First Division... a feat no Brazilian team has ever achieved.')

Plenty of tales of bad behaviour here, of course, and hellbent careerism. You'll also find the worst records by footballers, mascots, lardy and smoking players, turncoats, tattoos and tannoy announcements as well as the inevitable feet-in-mouth footie speak. There's room too for a sprinkling (just enough) of figures and statistics, and some more serious stuff such as stories from where football and politics meet, and some heartwarming tales of local heroes and players who did well in the face of adversity). There are quite a few books of this kind, but this is surely the one, Trevor.