How to Be a Footballer

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He talks in detail about his highs and lows at Sunderland, regrets of taking on the manager’s job at Ipswich Town when he realised the training kit was blue and also why he refused to sign Robbie Savage. The book looks at the technical side of the game and what you should watch out for in respect to tactical decisions and formations. One of the few modern players who spent their entire UK career at the one club, Gerrard dissects the defining games of his illustrious club career as well talking about his experiences with the England national team, both good and bad. One of the game’s most underrated players but still one of Leicester City’s greatest players of the time, this football book is a fantastic read for any fan of the beautiful game. A warm, intelligent and revealing biography which fuses history and politics with the study of genius to produce a unique portrait of the great Hungarian, Ferenc Puskas. A labour of love, it was born of Taylor’s urge to know his boyhood hero.

One of the biggest selling football books of 2015, Sky Sports Spanish football expert Guillem Balague’s gives us a fascinating account of Cristiano Ronaldo’s journey to become aruguable the greatest footballer in the world. However, we have found that some of the best football books are by lesser-known players such as Alan Stubbs, Danny Higginbotham and Muzzy Izzet which are just as entertaining, mainly down to their honest, descriptive stories and accounts of their footballing past.

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We love reading football autobiographies so we have compiled a list of the best football books for you to have a look at below. Following the theory of fandom as therapy, Hornby describes how he used Arsenal to escape from his parents’ divorce, problems with women, the question of what to do with his life, and so on. He treats his fandom as a problem, as something not entirely healthy. This set him apart from the previous notion of fandom as a hobby, and from his imitators who wrote cutesy accounts of watching bad football in the rain without any of Hornby’s honesty about their own lives. A player who always wore his heart on his sleeve, Higginbotham experienced the highs of promotion, lows of relegation and injury heartbreak during his career and he talks passionately about them all. The role of Children's Laureate is awarded once every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children's books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field. Find out what Joseph's been up to. In September 2016, Ruud Gullit released his book How to Watch Football his masterclass on how to ‘read’ the game.

An intelligent, thoughtful and compassionate man, who uses his status to achieve goodness in the world, this book is a very enjoyable read. Paulo dreams of becoming a football star and escaping his life of poverty. His all-boys neighbourhood team don’t think that girls can play football, but when one of his teammates is injured, the only chance they have of succeeding is if his sister Maria steps in to save the day. This beautifully illustrated picture book provides an insight into life within a Brazilian favela and will inspire young girls to be the hero of their stories. 5. Booked by Kwame Alexander Two decades after the book’s publication, saturation football coverage and internet access means that fans are far more cosmopolitan in their outlooks than ever before. However, Football Against The Enemy remains the only book to take a definitive sweep on world football, and explain how political and cultural issues influence the game across the globe. Jon Spurling

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One thing to note is that there are a few swear words within the book therefore it’s not suitable for some of Ronaldo’s younger fans. He writes in-depth about the transition from Arsenal’s ‘boring, boring Arsenal’ tag to the Wenger Revolution and the joys of playing with one of the most technically gifted players in the world in Dennis Bergkamp. Legend is a word that is banded around freely nowadays but you could arguably put former Aston Villa, Manchester United and Irish international Paul McGrath into this category. One of the stars of the early days of the Premier League, he recounts many stories of some of the characters still around in the game at that point before it exploded into the mega money-making machine it is today. One of the most eagerly awaited football books from one of the most respected pundits at the moment, Danny Higginbotham’s engrossing read hit the shelves in April 2015.