Eight-year-old Teko Modise didn’t mean to compete with his father, it was just that he was a soccer natural and everyone could see it. His father, in a fit of childlike jealously, kicked him out of the house, and when Teko tried to come back he kicked him out again. So little Teko made a plan. Every day he attended school as normal, and at night he slept out on the streets with other homeless children. This book is the true story of his rise to fame, to becoming ‘the General’, one of the best footballers South Africa has produced, and will allow readers to understand the story behind ‘the Curse’.

At the peak of his career the world seemed filled with Teko. His face was on every major billboard, TV advert and magazine cover in the country. Little boys from suburbs to townships everywhere were lining up at barbershops asking for The Teko haircut. With a house in Sandton and driving an Aston Martin, Modise was about to make history in the upcoming Soccer World Cup of 2010. He had gone beyond being football royalty, he became a super star. The tabloids have called him an abusive lover, a cheating ex-husband, a neglectful father and an alcoholic egotistical footballer. But beyond these headlines is a story about a boy who played his way out of poverty on talent alone.

Be inspired by this story of a young man with a resilient spirit who kept moving forward chasing his dreams, who not only survived, but made it, and made it big. The Teko Modise story is proof that anything is possible.

From beginnings on a gravel court on a farm in rural South Africa, Gordon Forbes went on to travel the world with his long-time tennis partner Abe Segal during the late 1950s and early 60s: the glory days of Fred Perry, Roy Emerson and Virginia Wade. In this delightful insider’s account of tennis on the international circuit, Forbes looks back with laughter at his tennis playing years through a varied, successful and often outrageous career on the world’s courts.

This newly published edition of A Handful Of Summers brings back a cult classic, revealing an era populated by the most colourful tennis players of all time. More about the hilarious escapades of players than the game itself, the book begins with a short series of vignettes from Forbes’s childhood on an Eastern Cape farm in South Africa, then takes the reader on a tennis tour – into locker rooms and restaurants, narrow streets and small hotels, and onwards to the lawns of Wimbledon and the caramel coloured clays of Roland Garros.

A player of international repute, Gordon Forbes has managed to capture the irresistible charm of an era while telling the story of a young man striving to follow signposts on the winding roads of life.

From the winner of the Telegraph Sports Book Awards Cycling Book of the Year 2018 The first Tour de France in 1903 was a colourful affair full of adventure, mishaps and audacious attempts at cheating. Its riders included characters like Maurice Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman, said to have been swapped for a round of cheese by his parents in order to smuggle him into France to clean chimneys as a teenager, Hippolyte Aucouturier with his trademark handlebar moustache, and amateurs like Jean Dargassies, a blacksmith who had never raced before. Would this ramshackle pack of cyclists draw crowds to throng France's rutted roads and cheer the first Tour heroes? Surprisingly it did, and, all thanks to a marketing ruse dreamed up to revive struggling newspaper L'Auto, cycling would never be the same again. Peter Cossins takes us through the inaugural Tour de France, painting a nuanced portrait of France in the early 1900s, to see where the greatest sporting event of all began.

The inside story of Jürgen Klopp’s astonishing revival of Liverpool Football Club, culminating in the 2020 Premier League title.

Featuring incisive and insightful reporting, along with interviews with players, management and club hierarchy, Believe Us paints a vivid picture of this stunning sporting success.

South African Sportscaster Melissa Reddy is now a regular contributor on Sky Sports, BBC and Premier League Productions and is also a senior correspondent at The Independent.

The must-have companion to world rugby's biggest event.

For the first time ever, a nation outside the Six Nations or Rugby Championship, Japan, is hosting the tournament, and this book contains everything fans will need, from venue guides to detailed information on every team, key players, playing strengths, coaches, past form and a prediction of teams' chances of success. In addition to reports on the qualifying tournaments and the fill-in Rugby World Cup 2019 fixture schedule, famous games are recalled in special features, together with biographies of the men most likely to light up the tournament in the way the 2019 hosts did when they shocked South Africa in England in 2015.

The Rugby World Cup's glorious history and tournament records are also fully covered making Rugby World Cup 2019: The Official Book essential reading for all fans interested in RWC 2019.

In the autumn of 2010, a little-known New Zealander called Joe Schmidt took over as head coach at Leinster. He had never been in charge of a professional team.

After Leinster lost three of their first four games, a prominent Irish rugby pundit speculated that Schmidt had 'lost the dressing room'. Nine years on, Joe Schmidt has stepped down as Ireland coach having achieved success on a scale never before seen in Irish rugby. Two Heineken Cups in three seasons with Leinster. Three Six Nations championships in six seasons with Ireland, including the Grand Slam in 2018. And a host of firsts: the first Irish victory in South Africa; the first Irish defeat of the All Blacks, and then a second; and Ireland's first number 1 world ranking. Along the way, Schmidt became a byword for precision and focus in coaching, remarkable attention to detail and the highest of standards. But who is Joe Schmidt?

In Ordinary Joe, Schmidt tells the story of his life and influences: the experiences and management ideas that made him the coach, and the man, that he is today. And his diaries of the 2018 Grand Slam and the 2019 Rugby World Cup provide a brilliantly intimate insight into the stresses and joys of coaching a national team in victory and defeat. From the small towns in New Zealand's North Island where he played barefoot rugby and jostled around the dinner table with seven siblings, to the training grounds and video rooms where he consistently kept his teams a step ahead of the opposition, Ordinary Joe reveals an ordinary man who has helped his teams to achieve extraordinary things.

The Big Fix gives the first detailed account of how South Africa paid $10 million to secure the 2010 World Cup.

Between June and July 2010, 64 games of football determined that Spain was the world’s best team at the World Cup in South Africa. South Africans – and the world – celebrated a brilliantly hosted tournament where everything worked like clockwork and the stands were packed with vuvuzela‐wielding fans. But the truth was not yet known. Behind this significant national achievement lay years of corporate skulduggery, crooked companies rigging tenders and match fixing involving the national team. As late as 2015 it was revealed that the tournament’s very foundations were corrupt when evidence emerged that South Africa had encouraged FIFA to pay money to a bent official in the Caribbean to buy three votes in its favour. As Sepp Blatter’s FIFA edifice crumbled, a web of transactions from New York to Trinidad and Tobago showed how money was diverted to allow South Africa’s bid to host the tournament to succeed.

In The Big Fix: How South Africa Stole The 2010 World Cup, Ray Hartley reveals the story of an epic national achievement and the people who undermined it in pursuit of their own interests. It is the real story of the 2010 World Cup.

Ian: ‘You’re going to run how far?’
Ryan: ‘250 kilometres. But it’s over seven days, though.’
Ian: ‘And the furthest you’ve ever run is …?’
Ryan: ‘42.2 kilometres … on the road. And on trail … 35 kilometres.’
Ian: ‘Ryan, I think you need to reassess this …’

What does it take to run a six-day race through the world’s harshest deserts? Or 100 miles in a single day at altitudes that would leave you breathless just walking? More than that, though: what is it like to win these races? South Africa’s ultra-trail-running superstar Ryan Sandes has done just that.

Since bursting onto the international trail-running scene by winning the first multistage race he ever entered – the brutal Gobi March – Ryan has gone on to win various other multistage and single-day races around the globe. Written with bestselling author and journalist Steve Smith, Trail Blazer – My Life as an Ultra-distance Trail Runner recounts the life story of this intrepid sportsman, from his experiences as a rudderless party animal to becoming a world-class athlete, and includes details on his training regimes, race strategies and aspirations for future sporting endeavours. Sports enthusiasts will enjoy the adrenaline-inducing trials and tribulations of one of South Africa’s most awe-inspiring athletes, while endurance-sport participants – from beginners to aspirant pros – will benefit from his insights and advice.

As Professor Tim Noakes says in the Foreword to this book: ‘However much we might think we know and understand, there are some phenomena which now, and perhaps forever, we will never fully comprehend. We call such happenings “enigmas”. Or even miracles. Ryan Sandes is one such.’

A thoroughly researched and comprehensive guide to the 2019 Rugby World Cup, to be held in Japan in September. This is the sporting highlight of the year, with teams from England, South Africa, New Zealand, Wales and Ireland all competing for the coveted William Webb Ellis trophy.

The book will provide the reader with all the information and insight needed to understand and enjoy the competition. Written by sports journalist Graeme Copas, the book covers the history and build up to qualification, the tournament schedule and venues for this Rugby Union showcase, while also providing talking points, an in-depth analysis of each team and insightful interviews with players and rugby experts from a variety of countries Also included is a thoroughly researched survey of the host country, Japan, and the growing popularity of rugby there, telling how they won the right the host the first Rugby World Cup in Asia.

All 20 national teams involved are analysed and assessed on their chances of success, the star players are featured and each coach`s basic strategies outlined and explained. With this book, the reader will have a handy, competent source of information on hand both before the start and especially whilst the tournament proceeds to its thrilling conclusion.

The Springbok rugby captain, over more than a century, has represented many things to many South Africans. He has united, and he has divided. He has thrilled, he has disappointed. He has inspired, he has disheartened. He has triumphed, he has failed. But he has always had an impact.

In this revealing narrative, Edward Griffiths and Stephen Nell depict the men who have been able to call themselves ‘Springbok Captain’ through their backgrounds, triumphs and disappointments. Relive the heyday of rugby legends Bennie Osler, Danie Craven, Hennie Muller, Johan Claassen, Naas Botha, Francois Pienaar, Gary Teichmann, Joost van der Westhuizen, Andre Vos and others.

Now fully updated with the accounts of Bobby Skinstad, Victor Matfield and Jean de Villiers, The Springbok Captains is the epic story that lies at the heart of South African rugby.

The fifth edition of Successful Event Management covers every aspect of events management, from the planning and set up process through to delivery, close-down and evaluation. The wealth of case studies includes both successful and failed events, allowing you to really understand how the principles described in the text can affect the outcome of an event.

Now filmed as INVICTUS directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2008 As the day of the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup dawned, and the Springboks faced New Zealand's all-conquering All Blacks, more was at stake than a sporting trophy. When Nelson Mandela appeared wearing a Springboks jersey and led the all-white Afrikaner-dominated team in singing South Africa's new national anthem, he conquered the hearts of white South Africa. Playing the Enemy tells the extraordinary human story of how that moment became possible. It shows how a sport, once the preserve of South Africa's Afrikaans-speaking minority, came to unify the new rainbow nation, and tells of how - just occasionally - something as simple as a game really can help people to rise above themselves and see beyond their differences.

2019 and 2020 mark the fiftieth anniversary of the controversial 1969/70 Springbok rugby tour of the British Isles - a landmark event on both a sporting and political level. Taking place during the time of South Africa's apartheid dispensation, the tour was characterised throughout by violent demonstrations against the 'ambassadors of apartheid'. Scenes of chanting demonstrators at the players' hotels and airports were not uncommon, nor was the sight of protesters being dragged off the field of play by police. Smoke bombs and flour bombs also became a match-day fixture.

These were wild and unnerving times for the players on tour, whose movements were badly inhibited and who had to play hide-and-seek to avoid possible violence between games of rugby. During a demanding tour that lasted more than three months and took them to and fro between England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, they endeavoured to sustain a proud tradition of highly successful Springbok tours through the Isles.

Through personal interviews with the players, including team captain Dawie de Villiers, vice-captain Tommy Bedford and other senior members of the squad, as well as key figures such as anti-apartheid campaigner Peter Hain, Crossing the White Line takes readers into the inner circle of a besieged group of sportsmen who just wanted to play rugby despite concerted efforts to deny them. The author also looks at the political context of events, and why so many felt that disrupting the tour was a matter of moral and political necessity.

From the makers of the UK's best football magazine! MATCH is the UK's bestselling football annual and is top of Christmas wishlists for footy fans everywhere. Inside the Match Annual 2021 you can find the ultimate guide to Euro 2020, epic interviews with the stars, plus the UK and Ireland dream team and also discover everything you need to know about Messi, Ronaldo, Kane, Salah, Mbappe, Maguire, Hazard, Pogba and all the other top footballers. Plus, it's packed with legendary Prem No.7s, craziest hair of 2019, brain-busting quizzes, the greatest Premiership team ever, bonkers pics, footy stars emojis, cool cartoons and loads more! Don't miss it!

The inspiring story of how the South African Springboks team won the Rugby World Cup in 2019. When Rassie Erasmus took over as coach of the Springboks in 2018, few thought they had a chance of winning the Rugby World Cup. The Boks had slipped to seventh in the world rankings and lost the faith of the rugby-loving public. Less than two years later, jubilant crowds lined the streets of South Africa's cities to welcome back the victorious team. Sportswriter Lloyd Burnard takes the reader on the thrilling journey of a team that went from no-hopers to world champions. He examines how exactly this turnaround was achieved. Interviews with players, coaches and support staff reveal how the principles of inclusion, openness and focus, as well as careful planning and superb physical conditioning, became the basis for a winning formula. The key roles played by Rassie Erasmus and Siya Kolisi shine through. There were ups and downs along the way: beating the All Blacks in Wellington during the Rugby Championship was a high point, but then came Kolisi's injury, while in Japan the distractions of a volatile support base sometimes shook the players' focus. Miracle Men is filled with marvellous anecdotes and sharp insights. It is also inspiring testimony to what can be achieved when a group of South Africans from all backgrounds come together as a team.

TO some he is Mr. Rotherham United. To Millers fans he is a club legend. To everyone he is simply - 'Breck'. John Breckin, toddler fan to Life President and lots, lots more in between. At the last count his number of jobs or positions at the club came to about 13. Unlucky for some but not for someone steeped in Rotherham United and who has an association with the club stretching across more than 50 years after walking through the door for his first training session as an apprentice professional when he was still only 14. He is third on the list of all-time appearances in the red and white and no one knows the club better either as a player or from behind the scenes. His time as assistant to Ronnie Moore is fondly regarded as a special era in Rotherham United's modern history. He has a reputation not just as a great story teller but a teller of great stories and John has accumulated a fund of tales and anecdotes. In his book, "Breck: My Life in Football" he will make Millers fans laugh but also give them the inside and insight into players, managers, transfers, incidents and a whole host more. When 'Breck' starts his story telling, he keeps on going. Who was the household name who, literally, was throttling him and which two teammates came to his rescue? How come he was in Elton John's office and what did he say that got him a favour from the Superstar? What whispered advice did Sir Alex Ferguson provide? Why did Kevin Keegan get a ticking off? How close did Breck come to joining Sheffield Wednesday? Which local manager wanted to sign him and arranged a clandestine meeting in a darkened car park? Why is Mother Theresa of Calcutta in the book? He gives the intriguing background to some important transfers and where Harry Redknapp became involved in a deal. John tells how and why he left the Millers three times, only to return four times, and how he wished he'd linked up with Ronnie Moore one more time. And the hardest journey of his life. It is by no means all sweetness and light. He notes the abuse he got from his own supporters, the mental health issues that arose and how that was dealt with decades ago. John shows his serious side in two very personal, emotional chapters that will resonate with so many people in Rotherham who will identify with his pain. And, typically, he is doing it all in a good cause because profits from his book will go to Rotherham Hospice, a great cause so very close to John's heart. If you've been a Millers supporter throughout John Breckin's time, then you'll find something to enjoy and, hopefully, enlighten and amuse as well.

In this thought-provoking new book, John C. Barnes examines the current state of commercial college athletics as a guide for potential administrators, coaches, regents, and others involved in collegiate athletic operations and decision-making. Each chapter provides an overview of an industry shaped by such current realities as Title IX requirements, commercial investments, student testing, and television contracts. Barnes provides an accessible outline of the historical background and potential future of the commercial college athletics industry from a nonjudgmental perspective. Same Players, Different Game not only serves as a text and guide for governance and leadership but also as a primer for the economic and political realities of modern college athletics that students and sports fans will find fascinating.

The Little Book of Man City is bursting with wit and wisdom of the great characters associated with the club. From managers, such as Malcolm Allison, Kevin Keegan, Roberto Mancini and Pep Guardiola, via garrulous fans such as Radio 1's Mark and Lard and the Gallagher brothers to voluble players such as Francis Lee, Dennis Tueart, Rodney Marsh, Kun Aguero and Vincent Kompany, here are more than 165 funny and biting quotes for the avid fan of 'the only club in Manchester'. As their chaplain once said, 'Imagine where City would be if I hadn't been praying for them all these years'.

'Ferrazzi is breaking new ground in defining what leadership can mean in the emerging world of work' -Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global 'Ferrazzi has gone into the trenches to figure out what it really takes to empower people and make teams more than the sum of their parts. This book will be a staple in every leader's library' -Adam Grant, host of the TED podcast WorkLife, bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals The world of work is changing at an unprecedented rate leaving many organisations struggling to cope. At a time when constant innovation, agility, and speed often mean the difference between success and failure, we can no longer afford to waste time navigating the complex bureaucracy present in most companies. The #1 New York Times bestselling author Keith Ferrazzi argues that in times like these the ability to lead without authority is the essential workplace competency. Leading Without Authority reveals the secret to getting those around you to collaborate and cooperate to reach their full potential, whatever your title. The answer involves a shift in mindset that Ferrazzi calls co-elevation - working to elevate those around us. And you don't have to have formal authority, or direct reports, to utilize the co-elevation process. In fact, you can take initial steps forward without the other person even being aware of your efforts. Drawing on a decade of research and over thirty years helping CEOs and senior leaders drive innovation and build high-performing teams Ferrazzi reveals how we can all transform our business and our relationships with the people around us. The result is a new roadmap for thriving amid the disruptive pressures afflicting every industry.

Tradition is a byword for Aston Villa. Few clubs anywhere in England, let alone anywhere else, can boast a timeline of success to match the Birmingham club. Founder members of the Football League, they first won the First Division in 1893-94 and by the end of the 1890s they had won five of their six championships and two of their seven FA Cups. Their last major portion of footballing glory came in 1981 when they won the League again under the disciplinarian Ron Saunders and went on to take the European Cup under his assistant Tony Barton a year later. From Pongo Waring and 'Big Ron' Atkinson through Peter Withe, Gary Shaw and Dr Josef Venglos, to Graham Taylor, Dion Dublin, Gareth Southgate, Dwight Yorke, Juan Pablo Angel, and David O'Leary, there is no lack of contrasting characters to draw on for quotes. Chairman 'Deadly Doug' Ellis is worth a book in himself and few clubs have a richer history or as many outspoken characters to comment on where it's all gone wrong (and occasionally spectacularly right) since the glory days of baggy shorts and Bovril at half-time.

Over the past decade, an audacious programme called Football Dreams has held trials for millions of 13-year-old boys across Africa looking for football's next superstars. Led by the Spanish scout who helped launch Lionel Messi's career at Barcelona and funded by the desert kingdom of Qatar, the programme has chosen a handful of boys each year to train to become professionals - a process over a thousand times more selective than getting into Harvard. In The Away Game, reporter Sebastian Abbot follows a small group of the boys as they are discovered on dirt fields across Africa, join the glittering academy in Doha where they train, and compete for the chance to gain fame and fortune at Europe's top clubs. Abbot masterfully weaves together the dramatic story of the boys' journey with an exploration of the art and science of trying to spot talent at such a young age. Richly reported and deeply moving, The Away Game is set against the geopolitical backdrop of Qatar's rise from an impoverished patch of desert to an immensely rich nation determined to buy a place on the international stage. It is an unforgettable story of the joy and pain these talented African boys experience as they chase their dreams in a dizzying world of rich Arab sheikhs, moneyhungry agents, and football-mad European fans.