No Hunger In Paradise

Download or read book No Hunger In Paradise written by Michael Calvin and published by Random House. This book was released on 2017-04-20 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlisted for the British Sports Book Awards 2018 “What’s your dream, son?” A six year-old boy, head bowed, mumbles the eternal answer: “Be a footballer....” Steadman Scott, football’s most unlikely talent scout, smiles indulgently, and takes him in from the street. He knows the odds. Only 180 of the 1.5 million boys who play organised youth football in England will become a Premier League pro. That’s a success rate of 0.012 per cent. How and why do the favoured few make it? What separates the good from the great? Who should they trust – the coach, the agent or their parents? Michael Calvin provides the answers on a journey from non-league grounds to hermetically sealed Premier League palaces, via gang-controlled sink estates and the England team’s inner sanctum. He interviews decision makers, behavioural specialists, football agents and leading coaches. He shares the hopes and fears of players and their parents. He exposes bullying and a black economy in which children are commodities, but remains true to the dream.

Download or read book No Hunger in Paradise written by Michael Calvin and published by Century. This book was released on 2017-04-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the third part in Mike Calvin's football book trilogy. First he wrote about scouts in The Nowhere Men. Next he wrote about the pressures of managers in Living on the Volcano. Now he writes about the players themselves, in his biggest and most ambitious book yet. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews, No Hunger in Paradise is the definitive book on what it takes to make it as a professional footballer in this country, and the pitfalls, pressures and casualties along the way. From visiting gangs in council estates in Brixton which have produced England internationals, to £200 million training complexes in Manchester, which only breed jealousy and entitlement, Mike follows the stories of the most promising young players up and down the country. He also interviews parents, coaches, agents and top managers and players to get an overall picture of the system, which is rife with corruption and abuse. No Hunger in Paradise is full of powerful human stories: of the youngsters who fall through the cracks and of those who fall prey to the entitlement and distraction of money. But in the vein of Gladwell's Outliers, he also explores the inspirational stories of grit and of success, and attempts to find out what common traits unite the rare individuals who 'make it'.

Download or read book Take Time for Paradise written by A. Bartlett Giamatti and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A philosophical musing on sports and play, this wholly inspiring and utterly charming reissue of Bart Giamatti's long-out-of-print final book, Take Time for Paradise, puts baseball in the context of American life and leisure. Giamatti begins with the conviction that our use of free time tells us something about who we are. He explores the concepts of leisure, American-style. And in baseball, the quintessential American game, he finds its ultimate expression. "Sports and leisure are our reiteration of the hunger for paradise- for freedom untrammeled." Filled with pithy truths about such resonant subjects as ritual, self-betterment, faith, home, and community, Take Time for Paradise gives us much more than just baseball. These final, eloquent thoughts of "the philosopher king of baseball" (Seattle Weekly) are a joyful, reverent celebration of the sport Giamatti loved and the country that created it.

Download or read book The Gold Mine Effect written by Rasmus Ankersen and published by Icon Books Ltd. This book was released on 2012-07-05 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A great read and a fascinating insight into performance.' Sir Clive Woodward We all want to discover our hidden talents and make an impact with them. But how? Rasmus Ankersen, an ex-footballer and performance specialist, quit his job and for six intense months lived with the world's best athletes in an attempt to answer this question. Why have the best middle distance runners grown up in the same Ethiopian village? Why are the leading female golfers from South Korea? How did one athletic club in Kingston, Jamaica, succeed in producing so many world-class sprinters? Ankersen presents his surprising conclusions in seven lessons on how anyone - or any business, organisation or team - can defy the many misconceptions of high performance and learn to build their own gold mine of real talent.

Download or read book Living on the Volcano written by Michael Calvin and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-08-13 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2015* A man punches the wall in a strategic show of anger. Another complains he has become a stranger to those he loves. A third relies on “my three a day: coffee, Nurofen and a bottle of wine.” Yet another admits he is an oddity, who would prefer to be working in cricket. A fifth describes his professional life as “a circus”. These are football managers, live and uncut. Arsene Wenger likens the job to “living on a volcano: any day may be your last”. He speaks with the authority of being the longest serving manager in the English game, having been at Arsenal for 17 years. The average lifespan of a Football League manager is 17 months. Fifty three managers, across all four Divisions, were sacked, or resigned, in the 2012-13 season. There were fifty seven managerial changes in the 2013-14 season. What makes these men tick? They are familiar figures, who rarely offer anything more than a glimpse into their personal and professional lives. What shapes them? How and why do they do their job? Award-winning writer Michael Calvin provides the answers. Insecurity is a unifying factor, but managers at different levels face different sets of problems. Depending on their status, they are dealing with multi-millionaires, or mortgage slaves. Living on the Volcano charts the progress of more than 20 managers, in different circumstances and in different phases of their career. Some, like Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martinez, are at the peak of their profession. Others, like Chris Hughton, Brian McDermott and Gary Waddock, have been sacked, and are seeking a way back into the game. They offer a unique insight into a trade which is prone to superficial judgement and savage swings in fortune. Management requires ruthlessness and empathy, idealism and cunning. Stories overlap, experiences intermingle, and myths are exposed.

Download or read book The Nowhere Men written by Michael Calvin and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-08-08 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of The Times British Sports Book Award 2014. A fascinating insight into the enclosed world of football scouts in the UK A teenaged boy plays football in a suburban park. His name is Raheem Sterling. The call is made: “Get down here quick. This is something special”. Another boy is 8, going on 28. His name is Jack Wilshere. The referee, an Arsenal scout, spirits him away from Luton Town. A young goalkeeper struggles on loan at Cheltenham Town in League Two. His name is Jack Butland. Within months he will be playing for England. Welcome to football’s hidden tribe. Scouts are everywhere yet nowhere, faceless and nameless, despite making the informed decisions worth millions. Award-winning sportswriter Michael Calvin opens up their hidden world, examining their disconnected lifestyles, petty betrayals and unconsidered professionalism of men who spend long, lonely hours on the road.

Download or read book Sacred Hunger written by Barry Unsworth and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2012-01-10 with total page 647 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Booker Prize A historical novel set in the eighteenth century, Sacred Hunger is a stunning, engrossing exploration of power, domination, and greed in the British Empire as it entered fully into the slave trade and spread it throughout its colonies. Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved. The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny. Joining together, the sailors and the slaves set up a secret, utopian society in the wilderness of Florida, only to await the vengeance of the single-minded, young Kemp.