Sports Biographies Football

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.

Freddie Steinmark was starting safety for the undefeated University of Texas Longhorns in 1969. In the thrilling “Game of the Century,” a come-from-behind victory against Arkansas that ensured Texas the National Championship, Steinmark played with pain in his left leg. Two days later, X-rays revealed a cancerous bone tumor so large that it seemed a miracle Steinmark could walk, let alone play football. Within a week of the Arkansas game, his leg was amputated.

Hoy que se aproxima su retiro, en conversación íntima y sin reservas con Diego Borinsky, Andrés D'Alessandro—máximo ídolo del club brasileño Inter, y desde siempre muy querido por todos los hinchas de River—cuenta por primera vez su vida, de La Paternal y Racing a Brasil pasando por Europa y, por supuesto, por el Monumental, con testimonios de quienes mejor lo conocen y más lo aprecian, de su esposa y sus padres a Marcelo Bielsa.

NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton is a friend of failure. In the 1970s, he brought the Minnesota Vikings to the Superbowl three times - and three times his team was crushed. The first two companies he founded both quickly folded. But by learning how to deal with defeat, Tarkenton discovered the key to success.

Thou Shall Not Pass (the title comes from a command England captain Terry Butcher would shout before every match) celebrates the football position where brutal characters are loved for their hard-hitting tackles and bruising mentality and yet laughed at for their apparent lack of skill. As well as covering the long and illustrious history of the centre-half, the book will take the listener into the muddy penalty area frequented by our protagonists, into their domain.

In Against Football Steve Almond details why, after 40 years as a fan, he can no longer watch the game he still loves. Using a synthesis of memoir, reportage, and cultural critique, Almond asks a series of provocative questions: Does our addiction to football foster a tolerance for violence, greed, racism, and homophobia? What does it mean that our society has transmuted the intuitive physical joys of childhood--run, leap, throw, tackle--into a billion-dollar industry?

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.

The US Women’s National Soccer Team has won three World Cups and four Olympic gold medals, set record TV ratings, drawn massive crowds, earned huge revenues for FIFA and US Soccer, and helped to redefine the place of women in sports. But despite their dominance, and their rosters of superstar players, they’ve endured striking inequality: low pay, poor playing conditions, and limited opportunities to play in professional leagues.

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.

Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry could not have had two more divergent personalities. Yet, while working for the New York Giants of the mid-to-late ’50s under head coach Jim Lee Howell, the pair formed what stands, to this day, as the greatest set of coordinators on one team. Given their personalities, one might have likened Howell’s job to that of Dwight Eisenhower as the general struggled to control the egos and politics of his allied subordinates during WWII. But for some reason, Lombardi and Landry worked almost seamlessly, and as a result, the Giants rose to the top of the NFL.

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.

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.

Had anyone told Ben Malcolmson that he'd someday be a wide receiver on the national champion USC football team - after not playing football since an unfortunate fifth-grade Pop Warner experience - he would have called them crazy. As a reporter for The Daily Trojan, in the spirit of George Plimpton, he participated in walk-on tryouts for the team and was dumbfounded to find himself listed on the roster. His position on the team never amounted to much in a game-time contribution, but Ben felt strongly that his faith was inextricably linked to his purpose.

Hometown Sports Heroes, Vol. 3 is a football book on old teams containing stories, traditions, and legacies that will take you on a trip down memory lane!

A massive audience in sitting rooms, parks and pubs watched England in the 2018 World Cup. Yet as Duncan Hamilton demonstrates with style, insight and wit in Going to the Match, watching on TV is no substitute for being there. Hamilton embarks on a richly entertaining, exquisitely crafted journey through football. Glory game or grass roots, England v Slovenia or Guiseley v Hartlepool, he delves beneath the action to illuminate the stories which make the sport endlessly compelling.

United With Dad is an emotional tale of football (soccer) fandom and fatherhood, detailing the agonizing final two years of a man's life while drawing on his love for and memories of Manchester United. United With Dad is written by David's son, Simon, who reflects on his father's life and their relationship, attempting to make sense of why, at such a bleak time, a shared love of a football club should matter so much.

In Drew Brees: The Inspiring Story of One of Football's Most Resilient Quarterbacks, you will learn the inspirational story of one of football's greatest quarterbacks, Drew Brees. After a storied career at Purdue as the record holder of virtually every Big Ten passing category, Drew Brees found himself in the NFL, selected by the San Diego Chargers. While he started his career with the Chargers, he cemented his legacy with the Saints after coming off of a severe dislocation of his shoulder joint and tear of his labrum and rotator cuff.

¿Cómo surgieron los mayores genios del balón? Sus orígenes e inicios. Todos los obstáculos a los que se sobrepusieron. Su vida antes de la gloria.

Sin recurrir a la brillante fotografía del liderazgo de Sergio Ramos García (Camas, Sevilla, 30-3-1986), no sería fácil navegar por la estela de éxitos que han venido atravesando la Selección española de fútbol y el propio Real Madrid desde comienzos del Siglo XXI. Campeón del mundo en 2010, en Sudáfrica y doble campeón de Europa (2008/2012) con el equipo de España -al que ya capitaneó en la Copa del Mundo de 2018, en Rusia-, Ramos ha ido marcando una clara secuencia de liderazgo desde que en 2005 fue transferido del Sevilla al Real Madrid por una cifra récord.

Starting with Jack Ham in the summer of 1994 and finally ending with Loren Toews in June of 2017, this book is the story of the 23-year search to find the 22 players, and head coach Chuck Noll, who were members of all four of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Super Bowl Championship teams in the 1970s, and honor their amazing accomplishments by having each of them sign a Pittsburgh Steelers football helmet. This book also includes biographies of each of the players’ athletic careers in high school, college, and the NFL.