Scheisse! We're Going Up!

A CLUB ON THE RISE.

A CITY IN FLUX.

THIS IS UNION BERLIN.

No football club in the world has fans like 1. FC Union Berlin. The underdogs from East Berlin have stuck it to the Stasi, built their own stadium and even given blood to save their club. But now they face a new and terrifying prospect: success.

Scheisse! tells the human stories behind the unexpected rise of this unique football club. But it’s about more than just football. It’s about the city Union call home. As the club fight to maintain their rebel spirit among the modern football elite, their trajectory mirrors that of contemporary Berlin itself: from divided Cold War battleground to European capital of cool.

Scheisse! will appeal to readers who are captivated by sports biographies such as Raphael Honigstein's Das Reboot and social history like John Kampfner's Why The Germans Do It Better.

'A wonderful journey into the heart of a very unique club'
RAPHAEL HONIGSTEIN, author of Das Reboot and Klopp: Bring the Noise

'An engrossing portrait'
PHILIP OLTERMANN, journalist and author of Keeping Up With the Germans and The Stasi Poetry Circle

'The history and culture of a special football club deserve a special kind of chronicling – and Holden has executed it to perfection'
PATRICK BARCLAY, award winning sportswriter and author of Football – Bloody Hell!