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The best football autobiographies give an insight to the sport that isn’t usually available
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Whether Ray Parlour or Andrea Pirlo, there’s a plentiful supply of football books to read
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Read below for the greatest football autobiographies to read
Ray Parlour: The Romford Pele
In the 70th minute of the 2002 FA Cup final, Parlour gained possession a good 25 yards from Chelsea’s goal and shaped to shoot. He was surprised at how much space he was afforded.
By his own later admission, Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink was trotting back to the halfway line at the time. Initially concerned, he relaxed when he saw who was about to unleash a speculative effort.
The Romford Pele promptly pinged one top bins, unquestionably one of the best cup final goals in modern times.
Across a long and trophy-laden career it was common practice to under-estimate Ray Parlour, and this extended to his nickname, that was affectionately meant but ironic.
Here too he surprises, because even if his life story does include all the laddish anecdotes you expect, it is admirably candid and captivating throughout.
Andrea Pirlo: I Think Therefore I Play
L’architetto (‘the architect’) constructs a cracking read, from his days at Brescia right through to lifting the World Cup in Berlin, and by never deviating from being searingly honest, it achieves something that should be a given with autobiographies, but rarely happens.
By the end of its relatively slender 150 pages, you feel like you really know the subject.
And Pirlo is worth knowing, a fascinating individual who intellectualised football, appreciating more than most that when played a certain way, it is an artform.
Steve Nicol: Five League Titles And A Packet Of Crisps
The former Liverpool full-back’s tome is a trojan horse in the sense that it has all the tropes you would expect. Pranks are recalled from his playing heyday. Banter is celebrated. Drunkenness is seemingly a state of being for many of his team-mates.
In fact, it’s amazing to think how this team achieved so much success, short-priced in the football betting in every competition they entered.
Yet above and beyond the anecdotes, this is a wonderfully evocative study of Eighties football, and more so the era itself.
There is also a poignant retelling of the Hillsborough tragedy that stays with the reader long after the final chapter.
Paul Lake: I’m Not Really Here
Technically a biography, but as it’s written by the player’s wife Jo, from countless hours of recorded conversations between them, it can be overlooked.
Emerging as an elegant, immensely gifted footballer in the late-Eighties, ‘Lakey’ was soon tipped for greatness and so highly was he regarded at Manchester City he was handed the captain’s armband aged just 21.
A matter of games into his captaincy however, the midfielder succumbed to a career-ending injury.
Lake’s unflinching account of the depression that followed, as well as how he was treated as a broken commodity in a sport hardly known for its empathy, leaves a lasting impression.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic: I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic
What’s the betting the generously-conked Swede believes this to be the greatest book ever written?
The iconic striker’s arrogance imbues every page but that only serves to make moments of crisis, even self-doubt, from a career packed full of incident all the more affecting.
From stealing bicycles in Malmo as a boy to reaching the very zenith of his profession, ‘Ibra’ has one hell of a story tell. Here he tells it in compelling fashion.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Sang Tan / AP Photo*
