The Accidental Footballer, Pat Nevin
The Accidental Footballer, Pat Nevin
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The Accidental Footballer

Author: Pat Nevin

Narrator: Pat Nevin

Unabridged: 11 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Monoray

Published: 05/20/2021


Synopsis

***

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'A heroic outsider - a pleasure to read.' - The Guardian

'A fulsome evocation of football before the Premier League.' - The i

'Honest, raw, revealing and very funny. How to live a life and career to the full. Insightful book about the most successful outsider inside football ever...' - Henry Winter, Chief Football Writer, The Times

'Pat is a wonderful one-off...and this is the story of why that is.' - John Murray, Chief Sports Correspondent, BBC Radio 5 Live

'Unusually vibrant and elegant with heroic doses of humour, insight and self-effacement, this is an absolute must-read for the football connoisseur.' - Omid Djalili

'The biggest influence of my professional career both on and off the pitch.' - Graeme Le Saux

'I grew up captivated by Pat Nevin the player. As a man he taught me even more about the beauty of the game. One of football's great mavericks, and Chelsea's greatest players. And he can spin a mean tune too.' - Sam Matterface

'I used to walk miles to see Pat Nevin play football and I'd do the same now to read his thoughts. Always challenging, always entertaining.' - Lord Sebastian Coe

'A refreshingly honest and thought-provoking autobiography. As deftly delivered as some of Pat's ball skills in his 1980's heyday.' - ToffeeWeb

Pat Nevin never wanted to be a professional footballer.

His future was clear, he'd become a teacher like his brothers. There was only one problem with this - Pat was far too good to avoid attention.

Raised in Glasgow's East End, Pat loved the game, playing for hours and obsessively following Celtic. But as he grew up, he also loved Joy Division, wearing his Indie 'gloom boom' coat and going on marches - hardly typical footballer behaviour!

Placed firmly in the 80s and 90s, before the advent of the Premier League, and often with racism and violence present, Pat Nevin writes with honesty, insight and wry humour. We are transported vividly to Chelsea and Everton, and colourfully diverted by John Peel, Morrissey and nights out at the Hacienda.

The Accidental Footballer is a different kind of football memoir. Capturing all the joys of professional football as well as its contradictions and conflicts, it's about being defined by your actions, not your job, and is the perfect reminder of how life can throw you the most extraordinary surprises, when you least expect it.

(p) 2021 Octopus Publishing Group

About Pat Nevin

Starting at Celtic Boys Club, over a 20-year career, Pat Nevin has played for Clyde, Chelsea, Everton, Tranmere Rovers, Kilmarnock and Motherwell. He has won 28 caps for Scotland across a ten-year international career. Nevin was chair of the Professional Footballer's Association and since retiring as a player has worked as chief executive of Motherwell. He is now a football writer and broadcaster for Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service, Chelsea TV, BBC Sport website, and Ireland's Newstalk Radio. A voracious vinyl collector, he still loves Indie music and the Arts, and can be often caught DJing at clubs or festivals around the UK. In 2021 he published his first memoir, THE ACCIDENTAL FOOTBALLER, which was a Sunday Times bestseller.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Joe

As a lifelong-Evertonian and Leftie with an affinity for vaguely ‘alternative’ music, you would think that “The Accidental Footballer” – the autobiography of Pat Nevin – would be right up my street. Nevin has always given the impression of being an all-round ‘good egg’, whose esoteric interests have......more

Goodreads review by Ross

I don’t read a lot of autobiographies and biographies but when I do, I like to read ones of people I admire and also of more unconventional characters and Pat Nevin is certainly not typical of you average professional footballer. In this autobiography Pat tells us of his upbringing in the east end o......more

Goodreads review by James

I like Nevin's radio and written commentary and it is worth pointing this out before addressing this book. There are lots of interesting topics and Nevin's heart is clearly in the right place, but he is the hero of every anecdote and there is a real lack of humility. Nevin doesn't use a ghost writer......more

Goodreads review by Keith

Actually 3.5* The opening of this enjoyable autobiography, sets the tone for much of what is to follow. Being rejected by Celtic at 16, Nevin saw this as something to be celebrated, rather than be upset about. After all it removed the prospect of him having to follow a career as a professional footba......more