More than ten people are murdered every day in Ciudad Juárez, a city about the size of Philadelphia. As Mexico has descended into a feudal narco-state — one where cartels, death squads, the army, and local police all fight over billions of dollars in profits from drug and human trafficking — the border city of Juárez has been hit hardest of all. And yet, more than a million people still live there. They even love their impoverished city, proudly repeating its mantra: “Amor por Juárez.”
Nothing exemplifies the spirit and hope of Juarenses more than the Indios, the city’s beloved but hard-luck soccer team. Sport may seem a meager distraction, but to many it’s a lifeline. It drew charismatic American midfielder Marco Vidal back from Dallas to achieve the athletic dreams of his Mexican father. Team owner Francisco Ibarra and Mayor José Reyes Ferriz both thrive on soccer. So does the dubiously named crew of Indios fans, El Kartel. In this honest, unflinching, and powerful book, Robert Andrew Powell chronicles a season of soccer in this treacherous city just across the Rio Grande, and the moments of pain, longing, and redemption along the way. As he travels across Mexico with the team, Powell reflects on this struggling nation and its watchful neighbor to the north. This story is not just about sports, or even community, but the strength of humanity in a place where chaos reigns.
Terrific. Fantastic. A hell of a book. In the best tradition of literary journalism, Robert Andrew Powell finds the story we’d missed in our own backyard, using the love of soccer to reveal the humanity that survives in hyper-violent Ciudad Juárez. This is the best sports non-fiction I’ve read in a long, long time.
Grant Wahl, New York Times bestselling author of The Beckham ExperimentTo call ‘This Love Is Not For Cowards’ a sports book does it an injustice. Powell tackles a subject that actually should matter to Americans: The bloody breakdown of civic life just over the U.S. border — and the ways it can corrode even the most detached observer’s soul. Daring, honest and wielding a pitch-perfect ear, he uses soccer to chart Juarez’s ultra-violent anarchy the way the best correspondents chronicle war. He leaps into the devil’s playground — and reports the hell out of it.
S.L. Price, Senior Writer, Sports IllustratedThe most dangerous game is believing in life. Robert Andrew Powell takes us into the most murderous city in the world, where a soccer team and its fans teach us how to live and why. This book will save your life by giving you life.
Charles Bowden, author of Murder City