Football

‘A brilliant insight into Liam’s life in football’ Kevin Moran

‘Insightful, often joyous, and hugely entertaining’ Roddy Doyle

‘One of our country’s great footballers, and definitely our most beautiful’ – John Giles

The #2 Irish Bestseller

“Being a footballer was my destiny.”

After being expelled from school for playing football for his country, fifteen-year-old Liam Brady travelled to London to join Arsenal, and soon became an indispensable part of their glorious 1970s team. Rightly considered one of the Republic of Ireland’s best-ever footballers, he went on to enjoy successes with Juventus, Sampdoria and West Ham, as well as managing Celtic and Brighton and Hove, and becoming assistant manager of his national team. Today he is best known for his much-respected TV punditry and searingly intelligent insights into the game he adores.

Full of honest insights, amusing anecdotes and recollections of extraordinary times, with Born to be a Footballer Brady delivers a compelling story of a fifty-year career that is unparalleled in Irish sport.

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‘A brilliant insight into Liam’s life in football’ Kevin Moran

‘Insightful, often joyous, and hugely entertaining’ Roddy Doyle

‘One of our country’s great footballers, and definitely our most beautiful’ – John Giles

The #2 Irish Bestseller

“Being a footballer was my destiny.”

After being expelled from school for playing football for his country, fifteen-year-old Liam Brady travelled to London to join Arsenal, and soon became an indispensable part of their glorious 1970s team. Rightly considered one of the Republic of Ireland’s best-ever footballers, he went on to enjoy successes with Juventus, Sampdoria and West Ham, as well as managing Celtic and Brighton and Hove, and becoming assistant manager of his national team. Today he is best known for his much-respected TV punditry and searingly intelligent insights into the game he adores.

Full of honest insights, amusing anecdotes and recollections of extraordinary times, with Born to be a Footballer Brady delivers a compelling story of a fifty-year career that is unparalleled in Irish sport.

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Hailing from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Casemiro enrolled in the youth academy of Sao Paulo, playing for his country in the Under-17s and Under 20s, and making his senior debut in 2011 against Argentina. Proving himself a highly skilled player, it wasn’t long before he caught the eye of European scouts during his 2012 Copa Sudamericana performance, and earned a loan to Real Madrid and then to Porto. In 2022, Casemiro transferred to Manchester United.

Discover how this defensive midfielder from Brazil overcame family struggles, balancing his home life with a burgeoning football career to hone his skills. From playing in the Sao Paulo youth academy and representing Brazil in the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup to signing for Manchester United and becoming a crucial member of the Brazil National Team.

Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to superstar professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

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The No.1 football series – over 1 million copies sold!

Norwegian international Erling Haaland is the rising star of Europe. Having already smashed Messi, Ronaldo and Harry Kane’s record of quickest player to twenty Champions League goals, ‘The Terminator’ is proving to be a ruthless, efficient, goalscoring machine. At such a young age, the world is his playground. Discover how he’s caught the eye of the footballing world and whether he’ll pip Mbappe to a Ballon d’Or!

Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to superstar professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

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*** SHORTLISTED FOR SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023 ***

‘fascinating, frank, funny’ Jim White, Daily Telegraph

‘insightful’ Henry Winter, The Times

‘very entertaining … great stories’ Hawksbee & Jacobs, talkSPORT radio

‘an incredible book’ The Football Show, Sky Sports News

‘Yeah, I’m all that plus a bag of chips’
‘Come round my house and we’ll have a fight on the front lawn’
‘I’m as chuffed as a badger at the start of the mating season’
‘I thought his bum cheeks looked very pert’

Football management is like being a potato – you’re never too far from the sack and everyone is constantly chipping away at you. It’s not for the faint-hearted and unless you’ve got skin as thick as rhino and, more importantly, a wicked sense of humour, you’ve no chance of surviving.

Ian Holloway – aka ‘Ollie’ – has all the above and more besides. His press conferences are the stuff of legend. He’s been there, seen it and done it in his 40 years as player and manager, and has been entertaining football fans on and off the pitch for most of his life. He’s been head honcho at clubs in all four divisions in English football, experiencing everything from the giddy heights of taking Blackpool to the Premier League to fighting relegation from the Football League with Grimsby Town. There’s never been a dull moment.

In the joyful How to Be a Football Manager, Holloway weaves a fantastically rich tapestry of hilarious anecdotes to reveal what being the boss is really like. This is not a handbook to tell you when to play a Christmas tree formation or throw on a false nine – it’s about dealing with the ridiculous, fighting your corner and always having a comeback.

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THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER FROM EUROS CHAMPION AND BBC SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR BETH MEAD

WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMESSPORTS BOOK AWARDS AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR 2023

With foreword by Ian Wright & afterword by Jermain Defoe

Beth Mead is one of the world’s most talented footballers – Golden Boot winner and Player of the Tournament at the UEFA Euro 2022, England Player of the Year 2021-22, Arsenal Player of the Season 2021-22, and runner-up for the 2022 Ballon d’Or. But long before this, Beth was just an ordinary kid from Hinderwell, North Yorkshire who wanted to play football.

From being placed in the local boys’ team as a child because her mum wanted her to run off her boundless energy, to joining Middlesbrough FC’s Centre of Excellence and making her professional debut at Sunderland, Beth and women’s football have come a long way.

Now, Beth shares the challenges that shaped her, what she faced on the journey to the top, and the life events that made her stronger – from being dropped from the England squad and receiving devastating family news, to finding her best form under the guidance of Jonas Eidevall and Sarina Wiegman. Filled with positive lessons and an exclusive account of England’s triumphant Euros campaign, Beth offers readers of all ages a heartfelt, behind-the-scenes look into her remarkable journey to glory.

Empowering, inspirational and honest, this is Beth’s story.

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Is Lionel Messi your number 1 footballer? In this NEWLY REVISED edition, we bring you fully up to date with Messi’s story so far and feature his stats and achievements since he left Barcelona for PSG after 18 glorious seasons, including his epic Copa América win with Argentina in 2021.

Did you know that the living legend Leo has played more than 950 matches, scored more than 750 goals, won 34 club titles including 10 La Liga titles and picked up 76 awards!

Discover how Leo went from being the smallest player on the field (as a young boy he was so tiny all the other players called him ‘Titch’) to being widely known as the ‘Greatest of All Time’ with his incredible runs, ball control and lots and lots of goals!

Football Superstars is a series aimed at building a love of reading from a young age, with fun cartoons, inspirational stories, a simple narrative style and a cast of characters chipping in with quotes, jokes and comments.

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GIVE THE STORY ON EVERYONE’S LIPS THIS CHRISTMAS: COLEEN ROONEY’S OFFICIAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

A candid, intimate, behind the scenes look at the reality of a life lived on social media and under the scrutiny of the public eye.

‘It was the biggest thing that had ever happened to me, and like nothing I’d ever experienced…

Looking back on it now, it still amazes me how inflated it all got, how ridiculous, how serious.

That’s why I need to tell what happened in full…’

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Coleen Rooney has always been true to herself.

In My Account, she tells us how her upbringing prepared her for a life in the full glare of public and media scrutiny. In fact, from an early age, she was no stranger to responsibility, having two younger brothers as well as welcoming disabled foster sister Rosie into the family.

At just seventeen, she and boyfriend Wayne left their childhood homes to live together and
in time they had their own young family to care for. But being married to one of the world’s most successful sportsmen has also meant that any private difficulties they faced were inevitably exposed very publicly.

And that is no more true than in the now infamous tale of how a casual acquaintance of
Coleen’s ended in an extraordinary deception.

Here, she recounts how she first suspected someone was betraying her trust (and how devastated it left her), and then the meticulous steps she took to identify, trap and finally reveal to the world her suspect.

With the consequences playing out around the world and Coleen dragged unwillingly into a devastating court case whose outcome was far from certain, only now can she candidly give us her side of the story.

This, then, is My Account, Coleen Rooney’s tale of what it means to stand up for yourself and your family.

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Ballon d’Or winner. Champions League winner. Serie A winner. Captain of Ukraine at their first-ever World Cup. Andriy Shevchenko conquered the football world. His career featured some of the sport’s greatest characters – from Valerij Lobanovsky, who shaped his early years at Dynamo Kyiv, to Carlo Ancelotti, Paolo Maldini, Andrea Pirlo and Kaka as part of a world-class Milan team. But Shevchenko’s story transcends football. Growing up 150km from the Chernobyl disaster, witnessing the decline of the Soviet Union and its descent into lawlessness, the struggles of his beloved Ukraine to gain independence in 1991 – and then the agony of the Russian invasion of his homeland in 2022. This is a football and human story like no other.

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As the son of a former footballer, Martin Ødegaard spent his early years at local Norwegian sports club Drammen Strong and, at the age of 10, joined the youth division at Strømsgodset where he trained with older players. By the age of 15, Ødegaard was playing in the UEFA Champions League and even represented Norway in a friendly against the UAE, making history as Norway’s youngest ever national team player. In 2015, Ødegaard caught the eye of Real Madrid where he trained with both the first team and the reserves. In 2021, Ødegaard moved to Arsenal where he quickly became an essential part of the team and was named captain ahead of the 2022-23 season.

Discover how this midfielder from Norway balanced full-time education with a burgeoning football career to hone his skills. From training and playing with opponents many years older and representing his country aged just 15, to holding the captaincy for both Norway’s national team and Arsenal.

Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to superstar professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

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The full story of the man who brought unprecedented – and since unmatched – success to Liverpool FC

Bob Paisley was the quiet man in the flat cap who swept all domestic and European opposition aside and produced arguably the greatest club team that Britain has ever known. The man whose Liverpool team won trophies at a rate-per-season that dwarfs Sir Alex Ferguson’s achievements at Manchester United and who remains the only Briton to lead a team to three European Cups.

From Wembley to Rome, Manchester to Madrid, Paisley’s team was the one no one could touch. Working in a city which was on its knees, in deep post-industrial decline, still tainted by the 1981 Toxteth riots and in a state of open warfare with Margaret Thatcher, he delivered a golden era – never re-attained since – which made the city of Liverpool synonymous with success and won them supporters the world over. Yet, thirty years since Paisley died, the life and times of this shrewd, intelligent, visionary, modest football man have still never been fully explored and explained.

Based on in-depth interviews with Paisley’s family and many of the players whom he led to an extraordinary haul of honours between 1974 and 1983, Quiet Genius is the first biography to examine in depth the secrets of Paisley’s success. It inspects his man-management strategies, his extraordinary eye for a good player, his uncanny ability to diagnose injuries in his own players and the opposition, and the wicked sense of humour which endeared him to so many. It explores the North-East mining community roots which he cherished, and considers his visionary outlook on the way the game would develop.

Quiet Genius is the story of how one modest man accomplished more than any other football manager, found his attributes largely unrecorded and undervalued and, in keeping with the gentler ways of his generation, did not seem to mind. It reveals an individual who seemed out of keeping with the brash, celebrity sport football was becoming, and who succeeded on his own terms. Three decades on from his death, it is a football story that demands to be told.

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Roger Federer is not only one of the greatest tennis players ever to pick up a racket – if not the greatest – but he is one of the global icons of our time. Characterised by a mixture of passion and calmness, a fierce competitor with a regal bearing, he is both an athlete and an ambassador, a street fighter and a statesman. But who is he really? And what are the experiences and influences that have shaped him into the world figure he is today?
This acclaimed biography, first published in 2006 and now fully updated in its ninth edition, traces Federer’s life and career, from his first tentative swings with a racket to legendary status. The vastly experienced writer, broadcaster and tennis historian Chris Bowers talked exclusively to many of the people who helped shape the young Roger Federer, and together with his own experiences following Federer’s career from his junior title at Wimbledon at age sixteen to his twentieth major title nineteen years later, he presents an affectionate and analytical portrait of one of the great names of modern-day sport. His book has enough information to satisfy the most voracious Federer fan, and enough talking points to keep an argument going until the small hours.
In its portrait of Roger Federer – the man, the player, the icon – this masterly biography brings the player’s story up to date, while also examining his place in tennis and sporting history.

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The No.1 football series – over 1 million copies sold!

Bukayo Saka has the world at his feet. Since breaking through the ranks at Arsenal, the young forward has gone from strength to strength, helping his team lift the FA cup for a record 14th time. His versatile style of play means he can help his team all over the pitch. Discover how the boy born in Ealing, went on to represent England at Wembley in the Euro 2020 final, achieved his dream of representing his country at such a young age and overcame adversity to become the ultimate football hero.

Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to superstar professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

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Sports Book Awards Autobiography of the Year
Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award
The Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year
The Times Sports Book of the Year
Telegraph Football Book of the Year

‘Ferris’s wonderful memoir represents a twin triumph. He has endured every kind of setback in life but has invariably reinvented himself; and his writing is a pure pleasure.’ The Sunday Times

‘Enough depth and humanity to make your average football autobiography look like a Ladybird book.’ Telegraph

‘A masterpiece of the genre’ Brian McNally

‘Football memoirs rarely produce great literature but Ferris’s The Boy on the Shed is a glistening exception.’ Guardian

‘Fascinating and stylishly told.’ David Walsh, The Sunday Times

The Boy on the Shed is a story of love and fate. At 16, Paul Ferris becomes Newcastle United’s youngest-ever first-teamer. Like many a tricky winger from Northern Ireland, he is hailed as ‘the new George Best’.

As a player and later a physio and member of the Magpies’ managerial team, Paul’s career acquaints him not only with Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish and Bobby Robson, Ruud Gullit, Paul Gascoigne and Alan Shearer but also with injury, insecurity and disappointment.

Yet this autobiography is more than a tale of the vagaries of sporting fortune. It begins during ‘The Troubles’ in a working-class Catholic family in the Protestant town of Lisburn, near Belfast. After a childhood scarred by his mother’s illness and sectarian hatred, Paul meets the love of his life, his future wife Geraldine.

Talented and carefree on the pitch, shy and anxious off it, he earns a tilt at stardom. His first spell at Newcastle turns sour, as does his return as a physio, although obtaining a Masters degree shows him what he could achieve away from football.

When Paul qualifies as a barrister, a career in Law beckons. Instead, a craving to prove himself in the game draws him back to St James’ Park as part of Shearer’s management triumvirate – with unfortunate consequences.

Written with brutal candour, dark humour and consummate style, The Boy on the Shed is a riveting and moving account of a life less ordinary.

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The No.1 football series – over 1 million copies sold!

Hailing from a poor family, Vini Jr saw football very much as a hobby rather than a career opportunity. But there was no denying that the young boy from São Gonçalo had bags of talent. Moving quickly through the ranks at Flamengo, he immediately caught the eye of the most successful European football club ever and soon joined Real Madrid. Discover how this winger honed his superior close control dribbling ability, added trickery, flair and flamboyance to his playing style and scored the winning goal in a UEFA Champions League final at only 21 years of age!

Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to superstar professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

Read more