South Africa's successful bid was in many ways unsurprising: soccer thrives in every country in Africa, and is a vitally important aspect of communities. This fascinating history traces the development of soccer in Africa and investigates what makes African football unique. Drawing on a wide range of sources, it also examines how the game fits into the social and political life of the continent.

    Recognise the name? Of course you don't. That's because most of Smith's years in the game were spent outside the vaunted, big-money environs of the Premier League - and this sporting memoir is all the more entertaining as a result. 1995: an adolescent Ben arrives at the training ground of one of England's biggest clubs to begin his journey and realise his dream of playing top-flight professional football. Aged just sixteen, he shares pre-season sessions at Arsenal with the likes of Dennis Bergkamp and Ian Wright. Surely this is the start of a stellar career? Instead, the next seventeen years saw the bright young star descend the ranks from Highbury to obscurity. With seasons playing for the likes of Reading, Yeovil, Southend, Hereford, Shrewsbury and Weymouth - and a career including three promotions, one relegation and some very memorable FA Cup games - Ben's story is one of a quintessential journeyman footballer. Candidly describing the negotiations, insecurities, injuries, relocations, personal implications and wet Saturday afternoons playing in front of 500 people, Journeyman offers a unique insight into the unvarnished life of a lower-league player - so far removed from the stories of pampered Premiership stars - as well as documenting the many teammates, opponents, managers and coaches who left an indelible mark on Ben's eclectic career. Refreshingly unsentimental and often hilarious, Smith's story is essential reading for all true fans of the not-always-so-beautiful game.

    In this account of his life, the author has examined every detail of the driver's life - from his very earliest days to the last hours of his existence - as well as the lives of those he left behind.

    Bear's personal off the field and his accomplishments on the field have contributed equally to his ever-growing status as an American icon.

    The Greatest is his authorized biography, written by Jim Denison, who worked on it with Haile for over two years, visited him in Ethiopia, and traveled with him on the European track circuit. Haile’s life story is fascinating, detailing his early years of hard poverty in war-torn Ethiopia, his relentless training, his rise to godlike status in the track world, and the good works he has done for his country with his fame and fortune. Most of all it is a glimpse of the kind, fascinating man behind all the records and medals._________________“Haile Gebrselassie is the best distance runner I have seen in the last quarter-century, the most electrifying personality, and somewhat of an enigma, given his Ethiopian roots. With this wonderful book, Jim Denison allows the whole world to learn more about Haile The Great, a distance-running star whose brilliance won’t soon be forgotten.”—Amby Burfoot, executive editor, Runner’s World, and 1968 Boston Marathon winner“Be in no doubt Haile is the greatest distance runner the world has ever seen.”—Dave Bedford, former 10,000m world record holder,and currently race director for the London Marathon“Haile is an elegant champion and a fine example of sportsmanship.”—Lasse Viren, Olympic double-gold medalist“In my view Haile is the greatest distance runner of all time and a fantastic testimony to his legacy is that the man who is going to challenge for that title ‘the greatest’ has been nurtured by Haile and his coach, Dr. Wolde-Meskel Kostre. Haile has taken care of the present and he is passing on the baton to the future, to one of his pupils, Kenenisa Bekele.”—Brendan Foster, MBE, 1976 Olympic bronze medalist 10,000m, former world record holder 3000m, and presently Track and Field Commentator for the BBC“Haile’s accomplishment is a class act on and off the track. He is not only admired for his running, but his universal smile (whether he wins or finishes second).”—Meb Kheflezighi, two-time Olympian and American record holder for 10,000m

    . . Wayne Rooney—no-holds-barred.Wayne Rooney is barely twenty-two years old, and he's already one of the finest soccer players in the world. Colorful and controversial, he plays—and lives—with an intensity that's unmatched on and off the field. With remarkable candor, he now tells the true story of his life.From his working-class upbringing on the back streets of Liverpool and his Premiership debut as a sixteen-year-old phenom to his ebullient entrance on the international scene in the 2004 European tournament and the raw drama of the 2006 World Cup, Wayne Rooney: My Story is an honest and inspiring account of a prodigiously gifted youngster and his meteoric rise to fame and fortune. It is a riveting tale of adversity and triumph, of champions and championships, of a private life that never could escape the headlines . . . and of a remarkable athlete whose destiny was forever altered when Manchester United came calling in the summer of 2004.

    Department of Justice until they were caught. The sport that privileged cold hard cash over honest competition was professional wrestling, and the conspirators were members of the famed National Wrestling Alliance. National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Pro Wrestling examines the NWA promoters’ overwhelming success, and the relationships to influential politicians and writers that protected their financial interests for over 50 years. Breaking the façade of sports production, it shows how promoters actually twisted arms to edge out their opponents. Hornbaker documents the life of the NWA, from its humble beginnings in the Midwest after World War II, to its worldwide expansion. He chronicles the Department of Justice’s investigation, providing sports fans with a never-before-told side of wrestling’s legacy. The most noteworthy exploits of the National Wrestling Alliance were behind locked doors. Now, the conspiracies of a century-old brand of entertainment will finally be revealed.

    Often called the greatest middleweight boxer of all time, he held the world title for 12 defenses, including bouts with Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran which entered fistic folklore. This biography tells the story of Hagler's extraordinary life for the first time, separating truth from myth to get right to the heart of a complex and charismatic man. From his wild early fights in the boxing wilderness of Brockton, Massachusetts, the book follows the blazing trail of Hagler's career: the controversial defeats subsequently avenged, a riot-scarred title win in London, and his unification of the middleweight crown. It also cover the Ring magazine's "greatest round of all time" against Hearns, his ferocious battle with Duran, and the still-controversial loss to his nemesis Leonard.

    Since bursting onto the international trail-running scene by winning the first multistage race he ever entered – the brutal Gobi March – Ryan has gone on to win various other multistage and single-day races around the globe. Written with bestselling author and journalist Steve Smith, Trail Blazer – My Life as an Ultra-distance Trail Runner recounts the life story of this intrepid sportsman, from his experiences as a rudderless party animal to becoming a world-class athlete, and includes details on his training regimes, race strategies and aspirations for future sporting endeavours.Sports enthusiasts will enjoy the adrenaline-inducing trials and tribulations of one of South Africa’s most awe-inspiring athletes, while endurance-sport participants – from beginners to aspirant pros – will benefit from his insights and advice. As Professor Tim Noakes says in the Foreword to this book: ‘However much we might think we know and understand, there are some phenomena which now, and perhaps forever, we will never fully comprehend. We call such happenings “enigmas”. Or even miracles. Ryan Sandes is one such.’

    And their fans had ulcers. Now, veteran sports columnist Terry Pluto explains why everything kept going wrong. This detailed report on two decades of disappointment takes a behind-the-scenes look at upheaval in the front office, frustration on the field, and headaches and heartache in the stands. His earlier book False Start: How the New Browns Were Set Up to Fail told how the NFL hamstrung the new franchise. Who could have predicted the limping would last 19 years? This book picks up the story. Season after season began with hope in spring for the NFL draft (“the Browns’ version of the Super Bowl,” a fan called it) . . . often a new coach or GM or quarterback (or all three) . . . then the losses . . . and back to rebuilding. Pluto reviews all the major moves—draft choices and deals, hiring and firing and reshuffling—and the results. If you’re a Browns fan who wants to understand what went wrong with your team, this is the place to start. Includes heartfelt and humorous opinions contributed by fans.

     This book does not do that. For many, playing professional sport is the Dream Job. Few manage it, very few make it to the top and for the rest, life is very different. This is their story. In Fringes, Ben Mercer invites you to witness life at the outer edges of professional rugby. This is a first hand account of what life is like as a journeyman professional athlete. You play, but to the wider public you don't exist. You earn but you don't drive a flash car. You sometimes pack out a stadium but sometimes, you play in a deserted park. This is the story for the majority of sports professionals. Only the minority taste the top, only one person gets to lift the cup or win the medal, only 15 get to play for England at any one time. For the rest, that’s not the case. Ben Mercer is a former professional rugby player who after becoming disillusioned and uninspired plying his trade in the English Second Division, accepted an offer out of the blue to go to France and do something different - help an amateur team turn professional. This is a first hand account of what life is like in the lower reaches of professional sport - where your employment status is as precarious as your health and barely anyone will know your name. It's about how it feels to live year to year, with teammates constantly on the move. It's about how professionalism irreversibly changes the French club Stade Rouennais as they move up the divisions, about the tension between progress and identity in a rugby team. It's also about how it feels to actually be out there on the field, how it feels to occasionally do something extraordinary and how it feels when this is no longer enough for you to make the sacrifices that you need to make to keep playing. There's no ghostwriting, it's an unmitigated meditation on how it feels and what it means to play rugby for a living, to dedicate yourself to an uncompromising but occasionally beautiful game. If you've wanted to know what life is really like as a professional athlete, on the Fringes, away from the glitz and glamour of the international game then look no further.

    Now take those events and transfer them to a volcanic rock with cruel winds, searing sun, rough seas and nosebleed-inducing hills, and you have Ironman Lanzarote. Why, then, would Andy Holgate – who admittedly has never swum in the sea, who can’t cope with the wind, sun or even stairs – take on such an extreme challenge? Simple: Because he can. Can’t Sleep, Can’t Train, Can’t Stop! continues Andy’s inspirational journey from where Can’t Swim, Can’t Ride, Can’t Run left off, chronicling his attempt to complete two Ironman triathlons six weeks apart. Already in his fortieth year, would Andy make it to his forty-first? Would Lanzarote prove one triathlon too far – or will Andy succeed against the odds and live to swim, ride and run another day?

    Exposes the dark and often seedy world shrouded behind the glamorous facade of professional football. 'I was a mess. I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't structure my day properly. I couldn't face having a shower or getting dressed. Those all seemed like major events I didn't want to confront.' Once the most charismatic and expensive player in the new Premiership flooded with cash, Stan Collymore had, by the age of 28, booked himself into The Priory to treat his depression, close to self-destruction and unable to get his head round playing at all. Along the way, he had been the goalscorer nobody wanted to congratulate, the centre-forward no one knew how to manage, a deeply reluctant star in a tabloid culture that saw him make the front pages as often as the back, and that waited for him to crack up or lash out. When he eventually did, it was, infamously, inevitably, at his then celebrity girlfriend, Ulrika Jonsson.But then retired from football in 2001 and finding himself in the commentary box, he proved he did care about the game, rather too much perhaps, sounding like a fan as much as an ex-player -- and at a stroke he had more in common with the rest of the nation. He knew it was all so much more than a game, and what happened on the field was only a reflection of what was going on inside players' heads. The contradictions remain. A man, who had a steady stream of celebrity women falling at his feet, shamed by his voyeurism in a Cannock car park; a star with everything who was once discovered by his wife tightening a belt around his neck; a loving dad of two whose own father walked out of the marital home and who Collymore continues to blot from his memory to this day; a footballer who abstains from drink and drugs, yet who needs therapy at Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous; the loner slated for his aloofness who found critical acclaim as a football pundit on national prime-time radio. This is Stan Collymore's own life story, the real person on his flawed character and personal demons, telling it like you have never seen before -- raw and uncut.