Sports Biographies Football

In 1976, Vince Papale was a down-on-his-luck substitute teacher, part-time bartender, and season ticket holder for the Philadelphia Eagles, the team he'd grown up rooting for. He had always loved football, but the closest he'd ever come to playing on Sundays was in local rough touch leagues. Until fate stepped in. Vince was 30 years old and wondering what he would do with his life, when he heard that Coach Dick Vermeil was holding open tryouts for the Eagles.

In this inspirational memoir, Derrick Coleman, Jr., the Seattle Seahawks fullback who won the 2014 Super Bowl with the Seahawks in his second year in the NFL, relates his inspirational story of hard work and determination in his own words. Showcasing his unlikely and challenging journey to become the first deaf athlete to play offense in the NFL, he talks about overcoming internal and external obstacles in the course of reaching your true potential.

He was a lovable rogue--a gambler, a billiards champion, a cardshark, a dance contest winner, a college student, and perhaps the finest all-around athlete the world has ever known. He was a maverick, a loner, his own man, almost reclusive, yet he was loved and admired by millions while he was alive and mourned nationwide after he died at the young age of 25.

Deutschland hat viele große Torhüter hervorgebracht. Doch seit Langem hat kein Schlussmann die Position so sehr geprägt wie Manuel Neuer. Seine Ausflüge bis weit aus dem Strafraum hinaus sind legendär, vor allem bei der Weltmeisterschaft 2014 gab er dem deutschen Team dadurch einen enormen Rückhalt. Als derzeit weltbester Torwart kann der gebürtige Gelsenkirchener eine beachtliche Trophäensammlung vorweisen: Neben dem Triple 2013 mit den Bayern und dem WM-Titel 2014 stand Neuer beim bislang letzten Titelgewinn seines Heimatvereins FC Schalke 04, beim DFB-Pokalsieg 2011, zwischen den Pfosten. Und ein Ende der Neuerschen Erfolgswelle ist längst nicht in Sicht.

Seit Thomas Müller im Herbst 2008 die große Fußballbühne betrat, sorgt er für Furore. Mit seinen Bayern wurde er mehrfach Deutscher Meister und Pokalsieger, seine drei Endspiele in der Champions League krönte er mit dem Titel 2013. Und mit der Nationalmannschaft feierte Müller ein Jahr später den bislang größten Erfolg seiner noch jungen Karriere: den Weltmeistertitel. Mit seinen gerade einmal 25 Jahren schickt sich der Offensiv-Allrounder an, Rekorde für die Ewigkeit aufzustellen und sich einen Ehrenplatz in der Geschichte des deutschen Fußballs zu sichern.

In this powerful memoir, Tony reveals how he summoned the courage to "run with purpose" during the times when racial tensions ran high as he grew from a boy trapped by the racial divide in Birmingham, Alabama, into a successful man and football hero. Inspirational and uplifting, Touchdown Tony is not only a behind-the-scenes look at a great football player's life and career; it is also a story of redemption and one man's hope to change the future.

Dopo quattro anni di sospensione, "Le Roi" Michel Platini si mette finalmente a nudo e racconta la verità sullo scandalo che gli è costato la presidenza della Fifa e che ha scosso il mondo del calcio internazionale. Il celebre centrocampista francese, tre volte Pallone d'Oro, rompe il silenzio e sceglie di dire la sua: in questo audiolibro ricco di ricordi e sfoghi, aneddoti e confessioni Platini ricostruisce le ragioni e denuncia gli interessi in gioco in questa vicenda, svela i retroscena di un vero e proprio complotto e per la prima volta parla del suo rapporto con Sepp Blatter.

Carlo Ancelotti, uno dei grandi protagonisti del calcio italiano, racconta la sua vita con la schiettezza e lo spirito pungente che derivano dalle sue origini contadine. "Uno su mille ce la fa", e lui è quell'uno. Centrocampista forse un po' lento, ma caparbio e con una lucida visione di gioco, ha avuto due grandi maestri, uno agli antipodi dell'altro: Liedholm e Sacchi. Da lì, la vocazione irresistibile a fare l'allenatore. Attenendosi semplicemente ai risultati, Carletto da Reggiolo ha vinto tutto. Eppure, la sua carriera sembra un percorso avventuroso.

As Alan recounts tales from his extraordinary life, he relives the sporting occasions, radio broadcasts and famously long drinking sessions that have defined his career. He takes listeners inside the talkSPORT studio for a behind-the-scenes view of his most memorable interviews and talks for the first time about the on-pitch rivalries and dressing-room debriefs of his footballing career.

No family in the history of American sports has ascended to the storybook level of greatness and royal succession quite like the Mannings. This talented trio of quarterbacks is enshrined in American culture, epitomizing once-proud but dying nostrums of Southern Christian manhood. With remarkable nuance, "outstanding biographer" (Dallas Morning News) Mark Ribowsky traces their roots from red-clay Mississippi. Drawing on dozens of new interviews, Ribowsky tells us that the path to football immortality has not always been smooth, nor completely glorious.

During his nearly 50 years of sportswriting, including 28 at Sports Illustrated, fans of Dr. Z came to expect a certain alchemical, trademark blend. Paul Zimmerman is one of the modern era's groundbreaking football minds, a man who methodically charted every play while generating copious notes, a human precursor to the data analytics websites of today. In 2008, Zimmerman had nearly completed work on his personal memoirs when a series of strokes left him largely unable to speak, read, or write. Compiled and edited by Peter King, these are the stories he still wants to see told.

Justin Adkins was a star football player in high school with good grades and lots of friends. Then, one day he woke up in a hospital in excruciating pain, unable to walk or talk. No matter how tormenting life became, Justin’s parents fought alongside their son. Pulling together in this unfamiliar territory, the family explored the options available for a teen with a disability, and the future ahead of him. The listener will be inspired by this story of true perseverance.

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?

NFL Brawler is a raucous first-person account of an NFL under siege by the game's first player turned agent, Ralph Cindrich, the original "Blind Side" agent. This entertaining pro football memoir takes listeners behind the scenes of the game's most important and outrageous drafts, deals, and trades; takes on NFL scandals by telling it like it is; and takes listeners closer to the real action of the sport - from locker rooms to boardrooms and into the worlds of agents and players - than any book to date.

Bachar Houli is as accomplished an AFL footballer as they come. He's been part of two Richmond Premiership sides, he was an All-Australian in 2019, and with more than 200 games to his name he remains a key part of a champion team. Picked at number 42 in the 2006 National Draft by Essendon, Houli played 26 games for the Bombers before moving in 2011 to Tigerland, where rookie Coach Damien Hardwick was assembling the team that six years later would achieve the seemingly impossible and claim Richmond's 11th Premiership.

The Wizards FC was a team of former school friends who - with the help of a few star ringers - slogged their way through mud, skinheads, and Staffordshire bull terriers to win the Edmonton Sunday League. Team captain Ewan Flynn brings alive a world of young men giving it their all on sloping pitches a million miles from the glamour of the Premier League, and officials who volunteer to maintain some sort of order. Along the way, he charts the bittersweet stories of mates who brought success to the Wizards.

This amazing memoir follows the story of Reggie Williams - ex-NFL linebacker, former Disney executive, renaissance man, and the epitome of determination in the face of extreme challenges.

Meulensteen's story begins in a provincial region of Holland; a student of the game, René explains how he fought through red tape and bureaucracy to establish himself as a coach with principles he firmly believed in, and how those visionary methods saw him land a remarkable position at the world's biggest club, overseeing the technical development of their most precious department—the youth system.

Life is hard in Barrow, Alaska. Football mom Cathy Parker first caught a glimpse of this reality from the comfort of her Jacksonville, Florida, living room while watching a 2006 ESPN report on the Barrow Whalers, a high school football team consisting mostly of Alaskan Inupiat Eskimo natives playing in the most difficult of conditions. These players found themselves playing on a gravel field. And while the community of Barrow felt a strong pride for their boys, many felt football was not worth the investment. That is, until Cathy Parker became involved.

The story of Marcus Rashford is nothing short of extraordinary - one of the brightest young stars on the Manchester United team, future England goal-scoring legend and shining example of philanthropy off the pitch. From tough beginnings in Manchester, Rashford has proven to be one of the Premier League's shining stars. Harry Kane used all his self-belief to prove that he could make it as a footballer. Now a superstar striker for Tottenham Hotspur and England, his hard work and determination have paid off.