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Origin Stories
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 349

Origin Stories

Origin Stories: The Pioneers Who Took Football to the World charts the growth of the game in each major footballing country, from the very first kick to the first World Cup in 1930. Football's global spread from muddy playing fields to colossal, purpose-built stadiums is a story of class, race, gender and politics. Along the way, you'll meet the people who established football around the world and discover the challenges they faced. Featuring interviews with leading historians, journalists, club chairmen and descendants of club founders and players, Origin Stories tells the fascinating country-by-country tale of how football put down its roots around the world. The sport's early growth includes a cast of English aristocrats and 'Scotch professors', French tournament pioneers, international merchants, keen students, raucous rebels and more. Origin Stories shows that football's early development was a truly global team effort.

Chelsea FC Women
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 256

Chelsea FC Women

Chelsea FC Women: Europe's Next Powerhouse? explores the tactical concepts behind Chelsea Women's rise and mission to become a footballing powerhouse. Having won ten domestic titles, the side are now on a quest for European glory. This book examines how coach Emma Hayes has crafted her team to make that dream a reality.

Next Big Thing
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 276

Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing tells the stories of 15 footballers who were tipped for the top as youngsters yet were unable to fulfil their potential. With each player exclusively interviewed and insight provided by former team-mates, coaches and expert journalists, Ryan Baldi explores the pitfalls facing young players and what happens when plans go awry. The players featured share much in common, having played for some of the world's biggest clubs - such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Internazionale and Ajax - represented their country at various levels and been tipped for the very top. They all fell desperately short of expectations, but the reasons for their struggles differ greatly. Myriad factors can prevent gifted young footballers from fulfilling their true potential, from catastrophic injuries to issues of addiction and temptation, from managerial misunderstandings to bad advice and bad decisions. The Next Big Thing uncovers what becomes of football's wonderkids when the stars fail to align.

The Cup
  • Language: en

The Cup

The FA Cup has been at the heart of our sporting life for 150 years. Its great stories, dramas and key figures are instantly recognisable - from Stanley Matthews to Bob Stokoe, from Ronnie Radford to Billy the white horse. The Cup celebrates the world's greatest football competition through more than 100 stunning and evocative photos.

Always Believe
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 288

Always Believe

Always Believe is the gripping autobiography of Chelsea, Arsenal and France star Olivier Giroud. Join him on a remarkable journey, from playing for a small club in south-east France to achieving top-flight glory there and in England, before lifting the World Cup with the French national team. Giroud shot to prominence in 2011/12 as the top scorer in France's Ligue 1, netting 21 goals to help Montpellier to their first-ever top-flight title. After signing for Arsenal in 2012, he rewarded the Gunners with 73 goals in 180 games and helped them to three FA Cup wins. He is also the French national team's second-highest scorer. Now at Chelsea, Giroud is still hungry for success. But what about the sacrifices he's made along the way? The pressures of being under the spotlight and having to cope with a constant stream of criticism and questions around his selection for the national side? Usually a private person, Giroud holds nothing back as he shares all the highs and lows of a stellar career at the game's top level in this tell-all book.

Love of the Game
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 264

Love of the Game

Ricky Hill grew up beneath the shadow of Wembley Stadium, where he sold programmes at England games as a boy. When he was seven, he was told by a teacher that only two in every hundred boys could possibly make it as a professional footballer. Ricky told her he would be one of the two. Ten years later, this gifted midfielder scored on his debut for Luton Town. Ricky stayed with Luton for 14 years, made 508 appearances and became a club legend. Emerging at a time when racism was rife, he was only the fourth black player to represent England. Later, as a coach, he had to fight to smash down barriers holding back black managers, and devised an equivalent of the NFL's 'Rooney Rule' to help BAME applicants secure senior coaching jobs in English football. While Ricky has won trophies and awards overseas, he has been overlooked in this country. In Love of the Game, he tells the shocking story behind his short spell in charge of Luton, and reveals just how much the football decision-makers in England have ignored him and other black coaches.

Pitch Black
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 201

Pitch Black

When Paul Canoville took to the pitch for Chelsea in 1982, he was prepared for abuse. When the monkey chanting and the banana throwing started, he wasn't surprised. He wasn't prepared, however, for the abuse to be coming from his own side. Canoville was the only member of the team whose name was booed instead of cheered, the only player whose kit wasn't sponsored. He received razor blades in the post. He took to waiting two or three hours to leave the ground after a match, fearing for his safety. So minimal was the presence of black players in the game, the few who managed to break through were subjected to the most graphic abuse from all sides. Today, 30 per cent of English professional foo...

Come on You Blues
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 256

Come on You Blues

Although well-known as the birthplace of Charles Darwin and for its idyllic location on the River Severn, in footballing terms Shrewsbury was still a backwater in the late 1970s. But Town's promotion for the first time in their history to Football League Division Two in 1979 changed all that. The 'Spirit of 79' propelled them into the limelight with a famous FA Cup run and an unlikely Third Division title triumph. Chelsea, Newcastle and West Ham would now be heading to Gay Meadow, and predictably Shrewsbury were the pundits' favourites for relegation. Come On You Blues is a vivid, first-hand account of Town's inaugural campaign in Division Two in 1979/80, as seen through the eyes of a 15-year-old fan and proud owner of a £12 junior season ticket. The book recalls the thrills and anguish of following a small team from Shropshire battling for survival in the second tier, and defying the odds by trouncing footballing giants, upstaging local rivals and scrubbing up well against exciting, up-and-coming sides.

Visionary
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 414

Visionary

Thirty years ago Michael Knighton arrived on the scene at Manchester United, bearing the revolutionary gift of ideas for the transformation of the club's fortunes. Visionary tells the inside story of his time at Old Trafford-a crucial, incendiary era in United's history. Knighton is popularly known as the man who very nearly bought Manchester United for the giveaway price of £10 million. Ultimately, he spurned the opportunity to complete the purchase, opting instead to join the board and watch as his radical ideas for a commercial revolution were put into action. Visionary argues the case for Knighton as the architect of the richest soccer club and greatest sporting brand on the planet-and that it was Knighton's unacknowledged axis with Alex Ferguson that enabled a paradigm shift in United's fortunes on the field of play, leading to unparalleled glories.

Can't Swim, Ride, Run
  • Language: en

Can't Swim, Ride, Run

This book is both a lesson in true grit and determination, but its goal is one that is attainable. Andy isn't a sporting superstar, he holds down a 9-5 job and all the pressures that go with it; he isn't blessed with speed and talent; there are no multi-million pound sponsorship deals; yet this remarkable "common man" is inspiring in a way that some of today's sporting superstars have forgotten how to be. You wouldn't recognize Andy in the street, yet his story provides valuable lessons to us all: "Never give up" and "Anything is possible." Can't Swim, Can't Ride, Can't Run follows Andy Holgate's epic journey from being an overweight librarian to an Ironman triathlete. Before he could even b...