Sports Biographies Football

Sadio Mané is one of Liverpool FC's 'Fab Four'. Along with Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Xherdan Shakiri, Sadio's goals have helped make Liverpool the deadliest attacking team in the Premier League. Since he moved to the Premier League, Sadio has been setting the bar to new heights - from scoring the fastest hat-trick in history to becoming the most expensive African footballer ever. There is no stopping the Fab Four, and the sky is the limit for Sadio Mané.

The inspiring memoir of one of football's greatest players - Steph Houghton - in which she recounts the highs and lows of making it to the top of her game as England Captain, star of the London Olympics, and Man City stalwart, via Sunderland, Leeds and Arsenal. With 121 caps for the Lionesses, Steph has been at the heart of the women's football revolution, inspiring girls and young women around the world but in her own understated way.

Cristiano Ronaldo overcame poverty and childhood illness to become one of the best football players ever. Escaping the hot streets of Madeira, Ronaldo first proved himself as a wonder-kid at Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson, before becoming a legend for Real Madrid and Portugal. This is the story of how the gifted boy became a man, a team player and a legend.

On 30 November 1872, England took on Scotland at Hamilton Crescent in Glasgow, a match that is regarded as the first international fixture. More than 5,000 fans watched the two sides play out a 0-0 draw. It was the first of more than a thousand games played by the side, and the beginning of a national love affair that unites the country in a way that few other events can match. In Hayward's brilliant new biography of the team, based on interviews with dozens of past and present players and coaches, we get a vivid portrait of all aspects of the team's story.

Sam Kerr is widely considered to be one of the best female footballers of all time. She is famous worldwide for her skills on the soccer pitch – but before she was Matildas captain and leading goal scorer for Chelsea, she was just an average Aussie kid who wanted to play AFL. This is her incredible football journey to the 2023 FIFA World Cup and beyond, from making the switch to soccer to becoming one of the best female strikers in the world. Sam gives us insights into what keeps her motivated, how she handles the pressures of life and what she believes is really important in life.

When Jen Welter became a linebackers coach for the Arizona Cardinals in 2015, she was the first woman to ever break the glass sideline of the NFL. In Play Big, Welter reveals the grit that it took to be a trailblazer in the ultimate boys' club.

Gazza's tears in the 1990 World Cup semi-final launched the boom of interest in football that continues to this day. Suddenly, Paul Gascoigne found himself the centre of attention in a way that only George Best and David Beckham have ever experienced. So much has been written about Gazza over the years, but he has said little - until now. For the first time, he talks in depth about the key events in his life.

In Bill Belichick: The Inspiring Life and Leadership Lessons of One of Football's Greatest Coaches, you will learn the story of how Bill Belichick became the legend he is today. At the time of this writing, Belichick has won six Super Bowl championships, the most of any professional coach in history. There are a number of key leadership lessons that can be learned from Bill Belichick, such as coaching everyone on your team, building a fluid team, and maximizing the potential of each individual player.

Marcelo Bielsa is one of football's greatest eccentrics and greatest enigmas.This is the first English biography of one of football's most contradictory characters. A definitive and comprehensive biography, from growing up in Argentina under a military dictatorship to reviving the stricken power of Leeds United.

As the head coach of the University of Alabama's football team, Nick Saban is perhaps the most influential - and controversial - man in the sport. Unpredictable in his professional loyalties, uncompromising in his vision, and unyielding in his pursuit of perfection, the highest-paid coach in college football has changed the face of the game. His program-building vision has delivered packed stadiums, rabid fans, legions of detractors, countless NFL draft picks, and a total of four championships.

There's no doubt that Dein has been one of the most significant and influential figures in British football for over three decades—operating at club and international level. He was a prime mover in the creation of the Premier League, hugely influential within the England set-up and, of course, was the mastermind—along with Arsène Wenger—in creating the glory days of Arsenal Football Club, leading the team for almost a quarter of a century.

Jamie Vardy, the free-scoring talisman behind Leicester City's Premier League champion title, has become a modern against-the-odds footballing hero the world over. Rejected as a teenager by his boyhood club, Sheffield Wednesday, Jamie thought his chances had gone. But from playing pub football and earning £30 a week at Stocksbridge Park Steels while working in a factory, his impressive performances and hard work saw him rise again.

Georgia Cloepfil played professional soccer for six years, on six teams, in six countries. In those years, the sport became more than a game—it was an immersive yet transient way of life. In South Korea, she lived and practiced in an isolated island compound next to an airport. In Australia, she coached youth teams on the side to pay her rent. In Lithuania, she played in the European Champions League, to empty stadiums and little fanfare. She lived out of a single suitcase, chasing better opportunities and the euphoria of playing well.

Find the inspiration you need to be the best soccer player you can be with these sports biographies! Soccer Stars on the Pitch goes deep and explores the lives and careers of some of the sport’s most famous players. Soccer (or, as it’s known outside the US, football) is the most popular sport in the world. From French stopper Hugo Lloris to American captain Christian Pulisic, these sports biographies show you how these amazing athletes made tough choices, overcame injuries, and blew past every other obstacle that got in their way!

Lorsque Kylian M'Bappé entre dans le stade Loujniki de Moscou ce soir du 15 juillet 2018, il est sur le point de réaliser son rêve : devenir champion du monde. Voici le parcours hors norme d'un surdoué du football : depuis ses premiers matchs à l'AS Bondy jusqu'à son but victorieux en finale du mondial 2018 face à la Croatie.

Archie Macpherson's compelling biography reappraises Jock Stein's career and looks closely at the personality of the man whose shrewdness and cunning stamped him eventually with greatness. Stein hugely influenced the history of football between his debut as a professional player in Lanarkshire in 1942 and his death at the side of the pitch in 1985. He redesigned the landscape of the Scottish game as the great innovator and successfully exported his values outside the country when European football was in the grip of the ice-age of defensive football.

George Sephton's relationship with Liverpool Football Club began in 1971 when he wrote to the club secretary applying to be the stadium announcer. His first match also marked the debut of Kevin Keegan. For the past 50 years, Sephton has been at Anfield for all but a handful of home fixtures, as well as travelling with the team to major finals. From the highs of winning numerous league titles and European Cups, to the lows of Heysel and Hillsborough, Sephton has been with Liverpool through it all.

On the west bank of the Mississippi lies the New Orleans neighborhood of Algiers. Short on hope but big on dreams, its mostly poor and marginalized residents find joy on Friday nights when the Cougars of Edna Karr High School take the field. For years, this football program has brought glory to Algiers, winning three consecutive state championships and sending dozens of young men to college on football scholarships. Although he is preparing for a fourth title, Head Coach Brice Brown is focused on something else: keeping his players alive.

Mark Noble joined the West Ham Youth Academy in 2000 and immediately made an impression. Tenacious, aggressive, brave and full of character, he was the perfect embodiment of West Ham’s values and was seen as having a bright future in the Hammers first team. But nobody could have dreamt of Mark’s career at the club: the most appearances in the Premier League for West Ham United and, by the time of his retirement in 2022, the longest-serving one-club player in Europe – his achievements cemented him as one of the club’s modern legends and earned him the nickname ‘Mr West Ham’.

In this New York Times best seller, College football’s most colorful, endearing, and successful pioneer, Steve Spurrier, shares his story of a life in football - from growing up in Tennessee to winning the Heisman Trophy to playing and coaching in the pros to leading the Florida Gators to six SEC Championships and a National Championship to elevating the South Carolina program to new heights - and coaching like nobody else.