Some of the most mesmerising passages deal with the star’s status as the only free man in the vast prison camp of Stalinist Hungary in the early-’50s. Tragically, Taylor’s Hungarian co-author Klara Jamrich died of cancer at the age of 35. David Winner If you’re looking for one of those football books that are crammed with no-nonsense facts, tactical analysis and a serious tone then this book is definitely not for you. Amongst the anecdotes that are peppered through the book are Gerrard’s thoughts on players he has played with and against and also managers that he played under.

The football book was once a Christmas staple. No visit from Santa to the Ross household was complete without the Shoot! Annual or the Topical Times Football Book. These photo-based publications, along with the obligatory My Story by a star player, established a lowly perception of football books as either pictorial and aimed at children, or as cliche-ridden as a post-match interview with an impatient manager. But football is a metaphor for life, isn’t it? Surely the perfect vehicle to convey the frailties of human existence?

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Throughout the book, Hamann expresses his thoughts and opinions in a no-nonsense way but at no point do you think he is trying to be sensational. Maybe it’s his German charm!

Jamie’s football prowess made him popular at his old school, and he is determined to be a star player at his new school, where he struggles to fit in. So, when things go wrong for him at the football trials, he becomes even more desperate to be successful next time. I loved the close relationship between Jamie, whose dad has walked out, and his Grandad Mike. I found Jamie’s dedication and commitment to making the team so inspiring and you can’t help but root for this relatable and likeable character. This first title in the Jamie Johnson series is an immersive and engaging read that will appeal to even the most reluctant of readers! 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 brilliant, well constructed read, Roy Keane’s book is surprisingly candid and there are many laugh out loud moments which will surprise many who think that he is an angry, brash man. Extremely funny from start to finish, the German with the Scouse accent lifts the lid on life playing for two of the biggest clubs in Europe in Bayern Munich and Liverpool as well the German national team. The notorious prankster caused mischief at pretty much every club he played for and he recounts his stories in typical light-hearted fashion.

We love reading football autobiographies so we have compiled a list of the best football books for you to have a look at below.

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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. Very self-deprecating, Crouch has done extremely well to change the public’s perception of him and is fast becoming one of the most entertaining characters in the game.

There are problems. When Bellos wrote this, he was Brazil correspondent for The Guardian, and like many daily journalists he has trouble structuring a book. At times it descends into a parade of cameo football obsessives. Secondly, he is shorter on theory than on fact. This is something of a relief after the many half-baked football-as-national-character arguments, but since Bellos knows so much, and seems so comfortable with Brazil’s history, language and music (like all good football books, Futebol is about much more than football), we want more of his insights. However, it’s an irreplaceable book. Simon Kuper From 1963 to 2016, Hugh McIlvanney wrote about sport for the Observer (30 years) then the Sunday Times (23 years). Released a year after his departure from the Observer and two years before his investiture as an OBE, this collection came out at a fascinating hinge in the timeline of the European game, a couple of seasons into the era of the Premier League and Champions League. Even more remarkable than winning the trust of England boss Bobby Robson and his players was persuading a major publisher to take a gamble on a genre that didn’t yet exist. Davies then wrote the book in just eight weeks after the World Cup to hit the Christmas market. “It’s still incredibly vivid to me,” he adds. “I’ll never forget being in Turin.” David Winner

Love him or hate him, you can’t seem to get away from Robbie Savage and his outspoken views on the beautiful game. From his days as a player at West Ham to his FA Cup win as manager of Portsmouth, this memoir shares the unbeatable highs and the dismal lows of a footballing career which has spanned over 50 years. He also reveals another side of his persona and talks about his personal battles with his inner demons, drugs and his time spent in prison for assault. But when, on November 10th 1999, Enke kissed his daughter goodbye and told his wife he was going training at Hannover 96, drove around in his car for several hours and then stepped in front of a train, Reng was forced to tell Enke's story without him. Balague has previously written football books on Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola and this book follows the same biographical format, charting Ronaldo’s early career at Sporting Lisbon, through to his time in England with Manchester United and becoming a ‘ galactico‘ at Real Madrid.