Champions League Dreams


Rafa Benítez - 2012
    Rafa expertly navigates fans through intriguing European adventures that embrace the triumph and despair of two Champions League finals, three semi-finals and five quarter-finals in what was a golden era for the Anfield club - an era that supporters felt gave them their pride back after years in the wilderness. What sets Champions League Dreams apart is the unique ways in which Rafa allows fans into his high-pressured world, the fascinating glimpses he offers of a top manager's thought processes and decision making during the cut and thrust of a high-octane European campaign. Understand how a great manager prepares for, then executes, a master-plan for European success.

Coming Back Stronger: Unleashing the Hidden Power of Adversity


Drew Brees - 2010
    Coming Back Stronger is the ultimate comeback story, not only of one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks, but also of a city and a team that many had all but given up on. Brees’s inspiring message of hope and encouragement proves that with enough faith, determination, and heart, you can overcome any obstacle life throws your way and not only come back, but come back stronger.

Mourinho


José Mourinho - 2014
    In the legendary manager's very first book, and in his own images and captions, Jose Mourinho charts the peaks and troughs of the opening fifteen years of what has been a stellar rise to the summit of the global game.Through more than 120 personally selected images (some of which are exclusive to the book), fans will relish an intimate and unmissable opportunity to understand and further appreciate this giant of the sport.

The GM: The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares that Go with It


Tom Callahan - 2007
    Tom made no promises, except that he’d bring to the project the same fairness and thoroughness that characterized his acclaimed Unitas biography, Johnny U. The result is a remarkable book that is at once a chronicle of a tumultuous season and the story of the NFL over the last three and a half decades, told through the eyes of a man who has dedicated his life to football. The Giants started the season with high expectations, hoping to ride the talent of players like Eli Manning, Jeremy Shockey, and Tiki Barber to the Super Bowl, but the team quickly fell apart due to injuries. The GM goes far beyond the specifics of a single season, though. In a marriage of two great raconteurs, one lobbing stories and the other neatly catching them, Callahan and Accorsi—writer and subject—show how the pro game (and the league that showcases it) really works, and the peculiar role of today’s general manager, who must be part seer, part accountant, balancing psyches and salary caps.At its essence, The GM is the story of the job—of what it means to be the guy who makes the decisions . . . who’s second-guessed by fans and the media . . . who must deal with endless—and sometimes impossible—expectations.Filled with the vivid anecdotes and storytelling that made Johnny U a surprise bestseller, The GM doesn’t just illuminate. It inspires with its portrait of a consummate football-personnel strategist who, over the course of decades, gave everything to the game he loved.From the Hardcover edition.

Eli Manning The Making of a Quarterback


Ralph Vacchiano - 2008
    But the drive, which also included a remarkable escape and pass completion to unheralded receiver David Tyree, was the culmination of years of promise and development. After all, champion quarterbacks aren't made overnight.With Manning, the Super Bowl MVP, as its focal point, New York Daily News Giants beat writer Ralph Vacchiano's 'Eli Manning The Making of a Quarterback' is a fascinating insider's look at the National Football League, how stars are made and crushed, and how fortunes are won and lost on the performance of one man: the quarterback. From the bold draft day trade that brought Manning to New York, through his dramatic ups and downs on and off the field, his first training camp to his last-minute heroics in Super Bowl XLII, Vacchiano takes a candid and revealing look at the people and events that made Manning's and his 2007 Giants' success one of the greatest stories in modern sports history. Complete with exclusive interviews with NFL stars, coaches, and executives and a foreword by former Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi, Vacchiano uses his unfettered access to the world champion Giants to present a true, behind-the scenes look at the quarterback and team that defied all of the experts and oddsmakers to pull off one of the most phenomenal upsets in pro football history.

The Football Man: People & Passions in Soccer


Arthur Hopcraft - 1968
    This definitive, magisterial study of football and society profiles includes interviews with all-time greats like Bobby Charlton, George Best, Alf Ramsay, Stanley Matthews, Matt Busby and Nat Lofthouse. It is a snapshot of a pivotal era in sporting history; changes and decisions were made in the sixties that would create the game we know today.

Believe Us: How Jürgen Klopp transformed Liverpool into title winners


Melissa Reddy - 2020
    The Reds became the first team in British history to hold the European Cup, Super Cup, World Club Cup and domestic league title simultaneously in a masterclass of free-scoring, full throttle footballing prowess.Journalist Melissa Reddy reveals the inside story of Jürgen Klopp’s astonishing revival of Liverpool, culminating in the club’s first domestic league trophy in thirty years. Featuring incisive and insightful reporting, and the thoughts of players, management and club hierarchy, Believe Us paints a vivid picture of this titanic sporting success. Reddy’s unparalleled access to the club brings interviews with everyone from fans and key backroom staff to players including talismanic captain Jordan Henderson, and of course Klopp himself.The perfect gift for any fan of the club or its inimitable leader, this is heavy metal football writing at its best.

Legacy


Tim Cahill - 2015
    Born in Sydney to a Samoan mother and Londoner father, Timothy Cahill grew up in the sprawling western suburbs, where cricket and rugby league ruled. It was a long way from his father's beloved West Ham and the English game that transfixed a young Tim with his own unlikely dreams of one day playing professionally.Growing up in the 1980s, life for Tim was about family, football and more football - training, playing and watching it with his brothers. Beginning as the youngest and smallest boy on the field, Tim steadily worked his way through the local club sides with an on-field toughness and intelligence that made the unlikely a possibility.By the time he was a teenager, Tim's parents boldly applied for a bank loan to fund his travels to England. It was an act of faith repaid with a successful trial for Millwall, the storied London club. After 249 appearances and 56 goals and cult-hero status among the fans, he signed for Everton, where he would enjoy a highly successful Premiership and stellar international career - leaving the legacy of becoming one of the most admired and respected Australian sportsmen of all time.With his trademark honesty and candour, Tim reflects on what it takes to make it to the top - the sacrifices, the physical cost, the mental stamina, the uncompromising self-belief, but also the loyalty, the integrity and the generosity. An autobiography that is more than a record of the goals and the games, Tim Cahill's story is a universal reminder of the importance of making your moment count.

Barça: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World


Graham Hunter - 2012
    This is the inside story of how the team came to redefine how the game is played, told by the journalist closer to it than any other. This edition contains a new epilogue reflecting on the departure of Pep Guardiola and Spain s victory at Euro 2012. It is of huge interest to anyone who loves the way this team plays football which is anyone who loves the game.

If These Walls Could Talk: Michigan Football Stories from Inside the Big House


Jon Falk - 2010
    Falk s encyclopedic knowledge of Wolverines football traditions and history make him a vital component of the staff that transforms talented college football players into true Michigan Men. And in his nearly four decades on the job, Falk has become one of the most beloved figures in team history. In If These Walls Could Talk, Falk shares his stories, memories, and friendships established in the locker room, on the sideline, and on the road with one of college football s most storied institutions. From legendary tales of Bo Schembechler s epic gridiron chess matches with Ohio State s Woody Hayes to the memorable day Falk introduced freshman phenom Anthony Carter to two-time All-American Ron Kramer, Falk s recollections connect the past and present to underscore the importance of building the relationships that drive the Wolverines to success. Win or lose, a game only lasts 3-1/2 hours, Falk said. Friends last a lifetime. He s an extra arm to the coaching staff. He s a shoulder to lean on for the players.... All players eventually have to leave the University of Michigan. But no one ever leaves Big Jon. Tom Brady, former Michigan quarterback, from his foreword [Falk] can tell stories going all the way back to Bo. That s a good feeling for a former player. That s what Michigan is all about. When you play football for Michigan, you never really leave. It will always be part of your home. Mike Hart, former Michigan running back Nobody knows more about Michigan tradition than Jon. Paul Jokisch, former Michigan wide receiver

3D Coach: Capturing the Heart Behind the Jersey


Jeff Duke - 2014
    Today's coach could be one of the greatest greatest authoritative figures in the life of today's adolescent. So the question isn't whether coaches leave a legacy, but rather, "What will that legacy be?" Current trending research shows that only 15% of coaches are intentional about coaching beyond the skills and strategies of the game (1st Dimension). A 3-Dimensional Coach understands and harnesses the power of the coaching platform to coach the mind (2nd Dimension) and transform the heart (3rd Dimension), tand they can be the catalysts for internal transformation that guides both the coach and the athlete on a spiritual journey to finding purpose in this performance-based culture of sport. "Now that's a legacy!" In "3D Coach," you will learn from National Coaches Training Director Jeff Duke about his own journey through the three dimensions of coaching and how it has impacted his life and those around him. You will also read the personal stories of coaches from all levels who have implemented the 3D concept into their own programs and who have pointed to Jesus Christ, the Master Coach, as the ultimate example of how to lead athletes to true significance.

Soul Crew: The Inside Story of Britain's Most Notorious Hooligan Gang


David Jones - 2002
    Formed in the early Eighties, it took its name from its followers love of soul music and brought together disparate mobs from the Welsh capital city and from the surrounding valleys and industrial towns. And it has left mayhem in its wake. David Jones and Tony Rivers are former members of the Soul Crew and give a riveting insider's account of clashes with the violent crews from as far afield as London, Middlesborough, Plymouth and Glasgow. They describe the intense rivalry with the 'Jacks' of Swansea City, reveal how internal tensions have prevented the gang from having a clear leadership, tell of their obsession with the 'casual' fashion scene and explain how they have forged friendships with fellow terrace obsessives from all over Britain.Told with black humor and unflinching honesty, 'Soul Crew' is an explosive account of how the hooligan culture has prevailed despite the best efforts of police, politicians and the football authorities to stamp it out.

Tom Landry


Tom Landry - 1990
    This autobiography offers an inside look at not just thefacts, but the thoughts, feelings and faith behind the familiar, stoic sideline visage. Illustrations.

White Storm: The Story of Real Madrid


Phil Ball - 2002
    They include twenty-nine league titles, nine European Cups, seventeen Spanish Cups, two UEFA Cups and three World Club Championship titles.The story of Real Madrid is, however, much more than the mere sum of its achievements. The club has always attracted the biggest names in the game - the type of player more recently referred to by Los Merengues as 'galáctico'. And for every Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo or Beckham, there is a legend from the past.White Storm charts the history of the club from its foundations to the golden period of Di Stéfano and Puskas, through the 'hippy years' to the modern embodiment of Madridismo - Raúl. It ends with an analysis of the Beckham impact, the disintegration of the Florentino Pérez regime and a look at what the future might hold for the world's most famous club.

The Farther Corner: A Sentimental Return to North-East Football


Harry Pearson - 2020
    Now, a generation later, Harry Pearson returns to the region to discover how much things have changed - and how much they have remained the same.  In the mid-1990s, Kevin Keegan brought sporting romance and expectation of trophies to Newcastle, Sunderland moved the the Stadium of Light backed by a wealthy consortium, Middlesbrough signed one of the best Brazilians of the era and won their first major trophy - even little Darlington had a former safe-cracker turned kitchen magnate in charge, promising the world. The region even provided England's two key players in Euro 96 in Alan Shearer and Paul Gascoigne - the far corner seemed destined to become the centre of England's footballing world. But it never happened. Using travels to and from matches in the 2018-19 season, The Farther Corner will explore the changes in north-east football and society over the past twenty-five years. Visiting new places and some familiar ones, catching the stories, the sentiment and the sound of the supporters, locating where football now sits in the life of a region that was once proud to be what John Arlott suggested was ‘The Hotbed of Soccer’, it will be about love and loss and the happiness to be found eating KitKats and joking about Bobby Mimms on cold February days in coal-scented northern air. The region may have been left behind in the Champions League stakes, but few would doubt the power of its beating heart.