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The Accidental Footballer
On sale
20th May 2021
Price: £20
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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
‘A heroic outsider – a pleasure to read.’ – The Guardian
‘A fulsome evocation of football before the Premier League.’ – The i
‘Such a good storyteller…joyous.’ – Financial Times
‘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.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
‘A heroic outsider – a pleasure to read.’ – The Guardian
‘A fulsome evocation of football before the Premier League.’ – The i
‘Such a good storyteller…joyous.’ – Financial Times
‘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.
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Reviews
Everything about Pat Nevin went against the grain. In a dull and predictable world of the Austin Allegro he was the red Ford Mustang with the white stripe in Starsky & Hutch. It's what made me joyous and proud that he played for my team. The self-penned and perfectly titled Accidental Footballer radiates a simple fact: that the exceptional magic of Pat Nevin the footballer matches the unconventional personality. The two are in fact one and the same. Unusually vibrant and elegant with heroic doses of humour, insight and self-effacement, this is an absolute must-read for the football connoisseur.
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.
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.
Pat was the biggest influence on my early professional career both on and off the pitch. He helped give me confidence to know I could be myself and "still" succeed even if I didn't quite fit in. An accidental mentor, maybe. A great player, an even better person, definitely.
The Accidental Footballer is as good as you'd expect from one of the most thoughtful voices on football (and music and politics) of the past 35 years. There are insights, revelations, strong opinions, honesty and humour, so it will definitely be up for awards. And, as you'd also expect, all the chapter titles are songs from Pat Nevin's favourite bands.
The Accidental Footballer, so modest and self-effacing, so decently socialist, evokes the national game in a period of transition, to which he himself contributed with style and with soul.
He is able to express what he thought and how he felt as his life and career progressed with clarity, candour and humour, offering an inside view of the game while somehow retaining an outsider's perspective.
