Football Book Club

For the first of our Book Club Classics we're heading back to 2021 to bring you Steve Bruce and his wife Janet's incredibly dramatic standoff with police inside a phone box in Gillingham. This clip is taken from Series 3 Episode 7 'Steve Bruce's 'Heading For Victory', which you can listen to in full by scrolling back through the Football Book Club podcast feed. See you next Monday as the new serie...

Football Book Club returns, live from London's Cheerful Earful podcast festival! And we've tracked down Alan Shearer's long-lost, secret 1998 audiocassettes to FINALLY bring Alan's story to the masses. Including how Bryan Adams helped secure Alan's move back to Newcastle, his war of words with Michael Owen, and Alan's 'tragically magnificent arse' he owes his whole career to. Plus Blackburn Rover'...

Football Book Club is BACK! Starting next Monday 15th September, new episodes will be dropping on your feed every fortnight. Great new guests! Questionable new books! Same Football Book Club. See you next week! Want to hear an extended preview of the new series? Join the Football Book Club *Club* at www.patreon.com/footballbookclub Follow us on X - https://twitter.com/FootieBookClub Instagram - ht...

It's the last episode of Series 5 :(. But we're going out with a bang, as we read Manchester United legend Dwight Yorke's explosive 2009 autobiography 'Born To Score'. Featuring treble heroics, the truth behind his romance with Jordan, and keepie uppies in a bin. Plus partying with Colin Montgomerie, David May's 'wicked' sense of humour and Quinton Fortune - the most delicate soul in footballing h...

Football Book Club are going international! As James heads to spectacular Rome armed only with a city guide written by its most famous son - AS Roma legend Francesco Totti. Totti penned 'E mo'te spiego Roma' ('And Now I'll Explain To You Rome') in 2012, and now, on what was meant to be a romantic weekend away with his fiancé, James will be taking in the sights, learning about the city and enjoying...

A late contender for best book title of the series, this week we're reading former Aston Villa, Leicester and Coventry City forward Julian Joachim's 2023 autobiography 'You Must Be Joachim'. Featuring the ups and downs of a career which sampled the Premier League to the Gibraltar National League, Julian causing a stink in the dressing room (literally) and failed Chinese restaurants co-owned with S...

It's time for, perhaps, the most obscure and most bizarre book we've ever read on Football Book Club - and definitely the shortest. We're reading all 58 pages of former Spurs, Wolves and Arsenal midfielder Rohan Ricketts's self-published, 2013 book 'Passion For Football: Things To Know From Youth to Pro'. Having played for no less than NINETEEN clubs around the world, from Canada to Bangladesh, Ec...

After the drama of Mick McCarthy's 2002 World Cup Diary a fortnight ago, it's time for Roy Keane's side of the story, as we read the Manchester United legend's explosive 2002 book 'Keane: The Autobiography'. Joining us to read it is the brilliant comedian and comedy writer, as well as host of The Way They Were podcast, Gráinne Maguire, as we delve deep, deep, DEEP into the mind of the former Irish...

We're heading back to 2002 where, over on an island in Japan, the Irish World Cup camp is about to be rocked by a heavyweight clash for the ages - Roy Keane vs Mick McCarthy. Once and for all we're going to find out who was right, who was wrong and most importantly, who wrote the better book about it? Starting with then Ireland manager Mick McCarthy's World Cup diary 'Ireland's World Cup 2002'. An...

It's time once more for everyone's favourite Football Book Club spin-off - Story Time! Previously only available to members of the Football Book Club *Club*, now everyone can enjoy our New Year's Day collection of loosely-football related stories, including brawling mascots, Romanian World Cup mishaps, Taylor Swift's hold over Brazilian giants Corinthians and footballers turning up on prime time I...

Crack open a bottle! Because it's the first episode of 2024 and we're celebrating by reading Alan Brazil's champagne-laden, 2006 memoir 'There's An Awful Lot of Bubbly In Brazil'. Joining us to read it is podcasting royalty and star of Beef and Dairy Network & Three Bean Salad - Ben Partridge, who was mesmerised by Alan's tall tales from Talksport and beyond, including Alan and Mike 'Porky' Pa...

It's (almost) Christmas! So what better at this time of year than for the Book Club to sit down around the log fire with a copy of Chelsea legend Frank Lampard's children's classic 'Frankie's Magic Football: The Great Santa Race'. Frank wrote *twenty* books in the 'Frankie's Magic Football' series back in the 2010s, with this being the most festive of the lot. Featuring talking dogs, evil animatro...

The brilliant comedian Dane Baptiste (Mock The Week, Live at the Apollo, BAMOUS) has been pushed to therapy by years of supporting Arsenal. So let's see how he holds up when he joins us to read ex-Arsenal and Southampton hero Theo Walcott's 2011 classic 'Growing Up Fast'. Written when he was just 22, we find out all about Theo's World Cup 2006 disappointment, the time Arsene Wenger chucked chewing...

Almost two years after we read Gary's first compilation of loosely-football related short stories, we've tracked down the sequel - the imaginatively named 'More of Gary Lineker's Favourite Football Stories'. And, somehow, it's even madder than the first. Featuring ghost grandpas, Tudor football-orgies and several animal attacks/other tragedies. Will Gary's stories go on to become favourites of our...

James in on holiday, so Tash is taking the reins for a Football Book Club first, as we read a book by a true quadruple threat. WAG, fashion icon, detective and Tash's inspiration - it's the one and only Coleen Rooney. She might have a new book and a TV series out, but we're heading back to 2007 to read her noughties classic 'Welcome To My World', detailing her and Wayne's life as never before. Inc...

The Athletic's Spurs correspondent and star of Football Clichés, Charlie Eccleshare joins us this week to read modern day Spurs legend Teddy Sheringham's 1998 autobiography 'Teddy'. Featuring Teddy winning the treble, run-ins with a baseball bat wielding Sir Alan Sugar, and struggles as part of Ossie Ardiles' Famous Five. Plus some clear anti-Michael Owen subtext, some even clearer Glenn Hoddle ba...

Football Book Club venture into new territory this week, as we read our first ever referee's autobiography. And who else to introduce us to the genre, but the most iconic ref of them all - Pierluigi Collina. Featuring Pierluigi on World Cup finals, Champions League finals, and a Serie C match where someone got attacked with an umbrella. Pierluigi almost getting Punk'd, joking around with Gabriel B...

This week we're reading Tottenham Hotspur legend and face of L'Oreal David Ginola's 2000 classic 'Le Magnifique', and joining us to read it is the brilliant comedian and huge Spurs fan, Rhys James (Mock The Week, Live At The Apollo, Fit and Proper podcast). Featuring David channeling his namesake David Brent, strong words about George Graham and Alan Sugar, and getting trapped on a yacht by Sir Al...

After many, many requests, this week the Book Club are reading a book with possibly the greatest title in literary history. Former Sunderland and Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan's 2022 autobiography 'LeGyanDary'. Featuring *that* penalty miss, what really happened at Sunderland and Asamoah's plans to set up an airline. Plus Steve Bruce slowly losing his mind, Bolo Zenden dancing, a team called Scientif...

Football Book Club is back! And first up, we're heading back to 2006 for a tale of trophies, tapping up and Cheryl Cole on a camel. It can only be Ashley Cole's polarising classic, 'My Defence'. Written at the height of Ashley Cole tabloid mania, Ashley seeks to clear up all the stories about the end of his love affair with Arsenal, 'just happening' to bump into Chelsea's José Mourinho and Peter K...

Coming Monday August 21st... The critically-acclaimed Football Book Club returns for a brand new series of footballer autobiography action. Oi oi, stunning. See you then! To listen to an extended version of this episode, and all our bonus episodes, JOIN THE FOOTBALL BOOK CLUB *CLUB* - www.patreon.com/footballbookclub Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The road to The Road To Persia is almost complete. Which means it's time to finally read the rarest footballer's autobiography of them all - Darius Vassell's. Featuring missed penalties, Sven's eulogies, drill mishaps and Trevor Sinclair going all Jackie Chan. Plus Disney princesses, Darius's mantras and we find out what's on David O'Leary's iPod. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @footiebookclub INSTAGRAM: @...

It's time for another round of Story Time, as the Book Club bring to the group some of their favourite football stories past or present. This week, Emile Mpenza takes Paul Sturrock to court, an eventful fixture between Albania and Iceland, and Steve Ogrizovic may or may not be in central Asia. Plus Jack takes us back to 1915 and James Boughen makes an unwelcome discovery. Hosted on Acast. See acas...

Twitter legend Jonny Sharples is a huge Rob Lee fan. So much so he owns two copies of his autobiography. However, he's never actually read it... Until now! Join us for Keegan v Tony Blair head tennis, Rob's high hopes for Diego Gavilan, and Nobby Solano's llama. Plus Noel's House Party, the time Jonny met Duncan Ferguson, and we find out why the book is like How I Met Your Mother. FOLLOW US ON TWI...

It's our 53rd-book-celebration-spectacular! And to mark the occasion, we're reading 90s relic 'Gary Lineker's Favourite Football Stories' - a book we're fairly sure Gary had absolutely zero involvement in. Featuring some of Gary's (allegedly) favourite football-themed short stories, including ghost dogs, giant children, mysterious flashers and the football equivalent of 1984. Plus James's weird dr...