Sports Biographies Football

Voted the greatest English cricketer of the 20th century by the fans, Sir Ian Botham is the English game’s one true living legend, and his story, both on and off the pitch, reads like a Boy’s Own rollercoaster ride. Born with a natural genius for the game, Botham began breaking records with bat and ball from a young age and soon became the man English cricket expected most from. After a troubled period as captain, Botham rose once again to become a national hero with his display in the Miracle Ashes of 1981.

Cristiano and Leo is the fascinating account of the lives and rivalry between two of the best footballers to ever play the game, Ronaldo and Messi. The rivalry between Ronaldo and Messi has defined football to a generation of fans - everyone has an opinion on who is the greatest. Do you prefer Ronaldo, whose work ethic and physique have been honed for one purpose - scoring goals? Or Messi, whose superhuman natural talent means he can do the seemingly impossible with a football?

El St. Pauli es la constatación de que otra forma de entender el mundo y el fútbol es posible. Es romanticismo en estado puro y es lo más similar al fútbol de barrio, a aquel fútbol popular que nuestros bisabuelos contemplaban desde las gradas cien años atrás. La forma de ser del FCSP ha hecho que personas de cualquier punto del mundo utilicen la bandera y el escudo en los movimientos sociales en los que participan. El año que viene seguirá en la segunda división alemana, pero sus escudos estarán por toda Europa en primera línea de las protestas.

El St. Pauli es la constatación de que otra forma de entender el mundo y el fútbol es posible. Es romanticismo en estado puro y es lo más similar al fútbol de barrio, a aquel fútbol popular que nuestros bisabuelos contemplaban desde las gradas cien años atrás. La forma de ser del FCSP ha hecho que personas de cualquier punto del mundo utilicen la bandera y el escudo en los movimientos sociales en los que participan. El año que viene seguirá en la segunda división alemana, pero sus escudos estarán por toda Europa en primera línea de las protestas.

Eigentlich fängt die Geschichte mit Kevin Keegan an, dem englischen Stürmer mit den wilden Locken. Der wurde in den Siebzigern zu Campinos großem Idol, denn dieser coole Engländer zeigte ihm, auf welcher Seite er zu stehen hatte. Und auch als Campino Punk wurde, war England die Antwort auf alle Fragen, die er hatte. Er verehrte Full English Breakfast, London und sogar die Queen. Was lag näher als die Entscheidung für den besten Fußballverein der Welt, den Liverpool FC?

Ever met a boy whose heart beats faster at the roar of a football stadium? If you know a 9-12-year-old with eyes wide at touchdown replays? Does your son, grandson, or nephew re-enact the famous moves of legendary players whenever they have a ball to hand?

Da Pietro Mennea a Roberto Baggio, da Marco Pantani a Valentino Rossi, da Alberto Tomba a Federica Pellegrini, da Valentina Vezzali ai fratelli Abbagnale, dalle più emozionanti vittorie della Ferrari ai trionfi degli azzurri di Enzo Bearzot e Marcello Lippi. Bastano questi nomi per evocare ricordi ed emozioni, esultanze e delusioni cocenti, un comune sentire che ha saputo unire ilnostro Paese, da Nord a Sud.

In the spring of 1942, the United States government forced 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes in California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona and sent them to incarceration camps across the West. Nearly 14,000 of them landed on the outskirts of Cody, Wyoming, at the base of Heart Mountain. Behind barbed wire fences, they faced racism, cruelty, and frozen winters. Trying to recreate comforts from home, they established Buddhist temples and sumo wrestling pits. Kabuki performances drew hundreds of spectators — yet there was little hope.

In his brilliant new memoir, Pat Nevin takes us on a journey to the less glamorous side of football. From Tranmere to Kilmarnock, he plays some of the best football he's ever played. Then, in an unprecedented twist of fate, finds himself both player and Chief Executive of Scottish First Division club Motherwell.

In the midst of violent, impassioned racial tensions in Birmingham, Alabama, new football coach Tandy Gerelds was struggling to create a winning football team at Woodlawn High School - one of the last schools in Birmingham to integrate. The team he was handed did not have the caliber of players he needed to win - until he saw Tony Nathan run.

Ernie Davis was an All-American on the gridiron and a man of integrity off the field. A multi-sport high school star in Elmira, New York, Davis went on to Syracuse University, where as a sophomore he led his team to an undefeated season and a national championship in 1959, and earned his nickname: the Elmira Express. Two seasons later, Davis broke the legendary Jim Brown's rushing records and became the first black athlete to be awarded the Heisman Trophy.

Robert Griffin III exploded onto the NFL scene with a style and flair anything but typical. With a Heisman Trophy on his mantel, RG3 entered professional football in 2012 under a spotlight that glowed beyond his own team, the Washington Redskins. Could the Baylor graduate electrify the NFL as he had the college game? Could he return a fabled franchise to the realm of elite Super Bowl contenders? Ted Kluck deepens the listener’s connection to a man who became the face of a revered NFL franchise before his 23rd birthday.

When it comes to college football, there are fans and there are fanatics. Destined by geography and family tradition to latch onto the Arkansas Razorbacks, Blant Hurt is of the second type. Like most devotees, he was captivated by his love of his team at an early age. But unlike more casual fans, Hurt found himself attaching what some might call “outsize life importance” to the fortunes of the Razorbacks - a team which, as the seasons progressed, provided more downs than ups.

Matt Jansen had it all. He was young, quick, audaciously skillful and, at the turn of the millennium, regarded as one of the most intelligent attacking talents in English football. His potential seemed boundless. After bursting onto the scene with Carlisle United in 1997, Sir Alex Ferguson tried to lure him to Manchester United, but foreseeing only a bench spot at Old Trafford, Jansen instead opted for Steve Coppell’s Crystal Palace.

When a career-ending injury saw former Ireland and Millwall striker Richie Sadlier retire from football at age 24, his life spiralled out of control. Without structure or a sense of purpose, fuelled by a dependency on alcohol, he spent years running from the dark memories and feelings that had haunted him since childhood. Until one day he hit rock bottom and decided to confront his demons.

When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer returned to Old Trafford as caretaker manager midway through the 2018-19 season, he breathed new life into a team that was drifting. In this new and definitive biography, Jamie Jackson investigates why he was the perfect man for the job to bring back the glory days. After the confusion under David Moyes, the stagnation of Louis van Gaal and the growing trauma under Jose Mourinho, Manchester United were a club increasingly struggling to challenge for major honours, something the fans had been accustomed to during the reign of Sir Alex Ferguson.

Johnathan Thurston is widely regarded as rugby league's greatest player. This autobiography will follow Thurston's journey from a Brisbane kid who was written off as too skinny, too slow, and too wild to play professionally, to his debut with the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2003, to State of Origin star, to Dally M and Clive Churchill Medal winner, and the fairytale premierships.

For Devon Still, life has been a journey from one scar to the next. From one challenge to the next. His is a story of pushing through pain and overcoming obstacles of all shapes and sizes - of choosing to fight for the sake of his family, his community, and his faith. Millions of people around the world have been inspired by Devon’s tireless devotion in helping his daughter, Leah, learn how to “beat up cancer”. But in this audiobook, Devon takes listeners behind the headlines to reveal the deeper story of what prepared him for that fight.

Marcellus Wiley has never had a problem expressing his opinion, whether it was growing up in Compton with a football tucked under his arm, or going to college at Columbia University, where he learned to survive Advanced Calculus and self-important pseudo-intellectuals. Or making it to the NFL against all odds, where he put together a 10-year career of massive paydays, massive painkillers, and massive sacks of everyone from Steve Young to Peyton Manning. Now, in Never Shut Up, Wiley doesn't hold back as he goes off on everything that's controversial with the game today.

Five years removed from winning a state championship in Nowata, Jerry Bailey had ended his run as the head coach at Sapulpa and was ready to move on to another high school and another football team. However, Bailey and his assistant Reagor left school on a January morning and never returned. Because of the Hate is the true story about the murder of Jerry Bailey, a beloved high school football coach in Oklahoma. In 1976, Jerry Bailey had resigned as the Sapulpa High School head football coach but was murdered by his assistant Paul Reagor, Jr.