Robert McCrum shares his favourite books on sport

The writer and editor recommends books on the sporting life. His new book, "The Penalty Kick: The Story of a Gamechanger", is about his great-grandfather, who invented the penalty kick.

The Iliad

Homer

Is it too fanciful to suggest that Homer is where the penalty kick and the penalty shoot-out begins? The moment we find Achilles sulking in his changing-room over an intolerable slight to his heroic prowess (actually, it's all about a girl), we are in classic single combat territory, replete with the kind of life-and-death psychology that Harry Kane and David Beckham would understand.

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Fever Pitch

Nick Hornby, 1992

A landmark memoir in which football is more than just a thrilling sporting narrative. A young man finds clues to the meaning of life through his devotion to Arsenal: the book that unlocked for me what it means to be a fan.

The Ball is Round

David Goldblatt, 2006

There are many shelves of books about football, but this is the essential guide. An unvarnished history of the game since the industrial revolution, it is well-sourced, dispassionate, comprehensive and impressively lucid.

The Goalkeeper's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

Peter Handke, 1970

Once the penalty kick was recognised as an existential symbol in Handke's avant- garde crime story, it acquired a resonance that still lingers. From around 1970, penalties became a topic of profound psychological importance, inspiring the emergence of specialist consultants versed in the mysteries of the shoot-out. An Irish invention now became a global televised phenomenon.

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

Malcolm Gladwell, 2009

Gladwell (famed for the "tipping point") is a master exponent of sports psychology and sudden death on the football field or tennis court. This collection includes his counterintuitively brilliant essay "The Art of Failure" – read him on "choking" and "panicking" at the penalty spot with your heart in your mouth.