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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Sporting events, tours & organisations > Sports teams & clubs
Ask any football fan who's better, Ronaldo or Messi and they'll have an opinion. Football is a team game. It's virtually unheard of to have the sort of focused, one on one rivalries that dominate individual sports. But for the best part of the last decade football has seen a personal rivalry unlike any seen before. Cristiano and Leo. This is their definitive story, from children kicking a ball halfway around the world from each other to their era-defining rivalry. One the preening adonis, a precision physical machine who blows teams away with his pace and power. The other a shuffling genius, able to do things with a football that seem other-worldly. Their differences seem to tap into something fundamental about football and indeed life. Between them they have scored over a thousand goals, won the Ballon d'Or nine times and redefined modern football. For the past eight seasons they have shared the accolade of best footballer in the world and arguments rage over which one deserves the title of greatest player of all time. Cristiano and Leo by journalist and author Jimmy Burns is the essential book to understand the defining players of a generation.
The inside story of Jürgen Klopp’s astonishing revival of Liverpool Football Club, culminating in the 2020 Premier League title. Featuring incisive and insightful reporting, along with interviews with players, management and club hierarchy, Believe Us paints a vivid picture of this stunning sporting success. South African Sportscaster Melissa Reddy is now a regular contributor on Sky Sports, BBC and Premier League Productions and is also a senior correspondent at The Independent.
In the autumn of 2010, a little-known New Zealander called Joe Schmidt took over as head coach at Leinster. He had never been in charge of a professional team. After Leinster lost three of their first four games, a prominent Irish rugby pundit speculated that Schmidt had 'lost the dressing room'. Nine years on, Joe Schmidt has stepped down as Ireland coach having achieved success on a scale never before seen in Irish rugby. Two Heineken Cups in three seasons with Leinster. Three Six Nations championships in six seasons with Ireland, including the Grand Slam in 2018. And a host of firsts: the first Irish victory in South Africa; the first Irish defeat of the All Blacks, and then a second; and Ireland's first number 1 world ranking. Along the way, Schmidt became a byword for precision and focus in coaching, remarkable attention to detail and the highest of standards. But who is Joe Schmidt? In Ordinary Joe, Schmidt tells the story of his life and influences: the experiences and management ideas that made him the coach, and the man, that he is today. And his diaries of the 2018 Grand Slam and the 2019 Rugby World Cup provide a brilliantly intimate insight into the stresses and joys of coaching a national team in victory and defeat. From the small towns in New Zealand's North Island where he played barefoot rugby and jostled around the dinner table with seven siblings, to the training grounds and video rooms where he consistently kept his teams a step ahead of the opposition, Ordinary Joe reveals an ordinary man who has helped his teams to achieve extraordinary things.
2019 and 2020 mark the fiftieth anniversary of the controversial 1969/70 Springbok rugby tour of the British Isles - a landmark event on both a sporting and political level. Taking place during the time of South Africa's apartheid dispensation, the tour was characterised throughout by violent demonstrations against the 'ambassadors of apartheid'. Scenes of chanting demonstrators at the players' hotels and airports were not uncommon, nor was the sight of protesters being dragged off the field of play by police. Smoke bombs and flour bombs also became a match-day fixture. These were wild and unnerving times for the players on tour, whose movements were badly inhibited and who had to play hide-and-seek to avoid possible violence between games of rugby. During a demanding tour that lasted more than three months and took them to and fro between England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, they endeavoured to sustain a proud tradition of highly successful Springbok tours through the Isles. Through personal interviews with the players, including team captain Dawie de Villiers, vice-captain Tommy Bedford and other senior members of the squad, as well as key figures such as anti-apartheid campaigner Peter Hain, Crossing the White Line takes readers into the inner circle of a besieged group of sportsmen who just wanted to play rugby despite concerted efforts to deny them. The author also looks at the political context of events, and why so many felt that disrupting the tour was a matter of moral and political necessity.
From the makers of the UK's best football magazine! MATCH is the UK's bestselling football annual and is top of Christmas wishlists for footy fans everywhere. Inside the Match Annual 2021 you can find the ultimate guide to Euro 2020, epic interviews with the stars, plus the UK and Ireland dream team and also discover everything you need to know about Messi, Ronaldo, Kane, Salah, Mbappe, Maguire, Hazard, Pogba and all the other top footballers. Plus, it's packed with legendary Prem No.7s, craziest hair of 2019, brain-busting quizzes, the greatest Premiership team ever, bonkers pics, footy stars emojis, cool cartoons and loads more! Don't miss it!
'Ferrazzi is breaking new ground in defining what leadership can mean in the emerging world of work' -Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global 'Ferrazzi has gone into the trenches to figure out what it really takes to empower people and make teams more than the sum of their parts. This book will be a staple in every leader's library' -Adam Grant, host of the TED podcast WorkLife, bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals The world of work is changing at an unprecedented rate leaving many organisations struggling to cope. At a time when constant innovation, agility, and speed often mean the difference between success and failure, we can no longer afford to waste time navigating the complex bureaucracy present in most companies. The #1 New York Times bestselling author Keith Ferrazzi argues that in times like these the ability to lead without authority is the essential workplace competency. Leading Without Authority reveals the secret to getting those around you to collaborate and cooperate to reach their full potential, whatever your title. The answer involves a shift in mindset that Ferrazzi calls co-elevation - working to elevate those around us. And you don't have to have formal authority, or direct reports, to utilize the co-elevation process. In fact, you can take initial steps forward without the other person even being aware of your efforts. Drawing on a decade of research and over thirty years helping CEOs and senior leaders drive innovation and build high-performing teams Ferrazzi reveals how we can all transform our business and our relationships with the people around us. The result is a new roadmap for thriving amid the disruptive pressures afflicting every industry.
Tradition is a byword for Aston Villa. Few clubs anywhere in England, let alone anywhere else, can boast a timeline of success to match the Birmingham club. Founder members of the Football League, they first won the First Division in 1893-94 and by the end of the 1890s they had won five of their six championships and two of their seven FA Cups. Their last major portion of footballing glory came in 1981 when they won the League again under the disciplinarian Ron Saunders and went on to take the European Cup under his assistant Tony Barton a year later. From Pongo Waring and 'Big Ron' Atkinson through Peter Withe, Gary Shaw and Dr Josef Venglos, to Graham Taylor, Dion Dublin, Gareth Southgate, Dwight Yorke, Juan Pablo Angel, and David O'Leary, there is no lack of contrasting characters to draw on for quotes. Chairman 'Deadly Doug' Ellis is worth a book in himself and few clubs have a richer history or as many outspoken characters to comment on where it's all gone wrong (and occasionally spectacularly right) since the glory days of baggy shorts and Bovril at half-time.
*** 'Bendtner is wired differently from the rest of us.' -The Guardian 'Explosive.' - The Mirror Known as 'Lord Bendtner' to his fans and haters alike, Nicklas Bendtner has been lauded for his football skills at super clubs like Arsenal and Juventus. But his career was haunted by his rocky behaviour and tendency to self-sabotage. Very much a fable of the modern game, Bendtner talks with disarming honesty about the darker side of football and his own difficult fall from grace; about what it's like to have so much promise that you lose touch with reality altogether. It's is about growing up in a working class neighbourhood and what happens when you give a troubled, overconfident teen millions to spend. It's about fighting to reach the top in the worlds' toughest league but having no respect for hierarchy. It's about friendship, rivalry, and the constant quest for an adrenaline kick. It's about money - having too much of it - and an industry that has lost sight of what really matters. A modern footballing fable, it's a story of decline, temper, talent, great football and ultimately the tragedy of unfulfilled potential. Not since the days of Paul McGrath's Back From The Brink have we seen such honesty on the page of a footballer's memoir. Fans of Paul Merson, George Best and Tony Adam's autobiographies will also find pure fascination here in a story that has gripped international readers...
This is the story of the Historic Sports Car Club. Over a period of 50 years, the Club grew from the germ of an idea to become Britain's leading race organising Club for cars from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The Club's strapline is 'pure historic racing'. This unique book, illustrated with over 500 photographs, tells the story of half a century of growth for historic racing in Great Britain. It is a story of ups and downs, of triumph and tragedy. From humble beginnings, the early years were faltering before the Club moved into race organisation in the early 1980s. There were times of financial trauma and upheaval and the Club came close to bankruptcy. However, the last two decades have been spectacularly successful. The race programme has grown, the membership has hit record levels and the portfolio of championships has doubled. Allied to that success, the Club's finances have improved beyond all recognition and its standing in British motor sport has scaled new heights. This is the story of those 50 years: but it is also the story of the people behind the Club, people who cared enough about historic motor racing to play a role in building the Historic Sports Car Club.
The Little Book of Man City is bursting with wit and wisdom of the great characters associated with the club. From managers, such as Malcolm Allison, Kevin Keegan, Roberto Mancini and Pep Guardiola, via garrulous fans such as Radio 1's Mark and Lard and the Gallagher brothers to voluble players such as Francis Lee, Dennis Tueart, Rodney Marsh, Kun Aguero and Vincent Kompany, here are more than 165 funny and biting quotes for the avid fan of 'the only club in Manchester'. As their chaplain once said, 'Imagine where City would be if I hadn't been praying for them all these years'.
"The Little Book of Man Utd" is a neat collection of words of wit and wisdom by and about Manchester United's players, managers and officials past and present. From Alan Hansen's falsely prophetic 'You'll never win anything with kids' to Eric Cantona's existentialist aphorism on the theme of seagulls, sardines and trawlers, the book will contain over 180 Red Devilish football quotes. Each quotation will be dated and attributed to its source and, where appropriate, entries will be accompanied by explanatory asides and/or supporting statistics. The sayings will appear in no particular order, but where connections and themes emerge these will be taken into account.
THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE BIOGRAPHY OF ARSENE WENGER EVER PUBLISHED, NOW FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED TO THE END OF HIS ARSENAL CAREER. When Arsene Wenger arrived at Arsenal in 1996, he was little known to fans at the club and many doubted he could bring back the glory days of George Graham. But soon he was transforming the way the team played, melding the famous English defensive spine of Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn and David Seaman with a hugely creative foreign attacking spirit, epitomised by Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires, that could both outplay and outmuscle their rivals. At the same time, he introduced new ideas on diet, exercise, training and tactics, which many players believe extended their careers. Having won numerous trophies, and led the Invincibles to an unprecedented unbeaten league season in 2003-04, Wenger then had to help the Gunners through the next stage of their development when they moved from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium, a move that was followed by a nine-year trophy drought. Despite the financial constraints he faced, he still managed to keep the club playing in the Champions League year after year while remaining true to his philosophy of how the game should be played. Some began to question whether he had been left behind, despite picking up back-to-back FA Cups in 2014 and 2015, and in the end in April 2018 he decided the time was right to step away. Now, in this updated edition of John Cross's acclaimed biography, the author provides a compelling account of the man and his methods across 22 years in charge. He assesses the scale of Wenger's achievements and whether the criticism he faced towards the end was justified. Arsene Wenger builds into the most complete portrait of the Frenchman yet written.
Can you solve this sporting equation? '53EG for WR' In which sport can you win the Sid Waddell Trophy? And in which year did Turin host the Winter Olympics? For over 50 years A Question of Sport has been the last word in sports quizzing, and now you can take on the challenge to guess the Mystery Guest, race to the Sprint Finish, and show off your expertise. With over 3000 new questions from athletics to football, racing, tennis, swimming and every sport in between, you'll be tested on sports in every era. Challenge friends and family or play in teams to be crowned the champions. Will you gamble or play it safe in Home or Away? Could you hold your nerve in the high-speed buzzer round? What will your score be when the final whistle blows?
Updated to include the Premier League Victory 2020 "It is the intensity of the football, of how the people live football in Liverpool, all the Liverpool fans around the world. It is not a normal club, it is a special club." Jurgen Klopp Jurgen Klopp is the charismatic German manager who single-handedly overthrew the accepted order in German football, taking Borussia Dortmund from nowhere to back-to-back Bundesliga titles and the Champions League final. He had long been admired in the Premiership and was finally wooed by Liverpool in the belief he could bring back the glory days to the Kop. Klopp is revered as a master tactician with his own unique playing philosophies. He is loved by his players for his passion and man-management skills, and adored by fans for his charm, wit and exciting football on the pitch. Here is the definitive story of Jurgen Klopp - the normal one - and his footballing genius.
From the author of `He's one of our own' comes `We're not going to Wembley', the story of Sheffield United's 2018/19 promotion season from the Championship - just two years after winning promotion out of League One. A thrilling promotion battle with rivals Leeds saw the Blades emerge victorious, and culminated in memorable scenes as everyone connected with the club ensured they drank in every single moment. With contributions from players, fans and manager Wilder himself - who writes the foreword - this is the story of a remarkable season that will be remembered forever in the illustrious history of this proud football club.
The 2018-2019 Texas Tech men's basketball team began the season unranked and ended it playing on Monday night for the National Championship. Raider Power gives every fan a fully immersive experience with the story of a group of stone-faced dreamers and their historic journey from unranked to Big 12 Champions to the Final Four. Raider Power offers a showcase of the Red Raiders' individual players, spotlighting and providing insider information on this unexpected group of winners, all while focusing on the bond that transformed a group of underdogs into a world-class team with the best defense in the country. Follow the team from the earliest parts of the season all the way to the Championship game on Monday night. Relive every highlight, locker room celebration, and trophy ceremony. Learn the ins and outs of head coach Chris Beard's vision for the team. The ultimate effect of the Red Raiders' amazing run was to establish a culture of excellence and community: this was a group of guys who cared for each other personally, in addition to complementing each other on the court. Raider Power is the official insider companion to an incredible season-it is a must-read for all Red Raiders.
This quiz book covers the fascinating journey of Hibernian Football Club throughout the past 142 years. Offcial club historian Tom Wright has used his comprehensive knowledge of the sport and the team to devise over 600 questions spanning from the early days of the club to the present. This is the perfect book for fans of all ages to learn more about the history of one of Scotland's greatest football teams. |
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