WHOSE GAME IS IT ANYWAY?

● ● ● ● ●

Visiting outposts as diverse as the Amazon Basin, Moscow at the height of the Cold War and Vicarage Road, Michael Calvin’s memoir is a poignant reminder of the role football plays in everyday life across the globe.

Penned at the height of the COVID- 19 crisis, Calvin draws upon decades of experience to cast his eyes over the minutiae. He tells the story of Workington Town cult hero Johnny Martin, a self- styled ‘ poor man’s George Best’ who would sit on the ball and invite opposition defenders to charge him. You’ll also find a bizarre encounter with Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, living in The Brazil, European hawking Cup memorabilia Winners’ Cup but final still was pondering spectated the outcome by fewer than of Charlton 10,000 fans vs Millwall. on three occasions. Calvin’s Just encounters 6,461 watched with Brian East Clough, German the club retired Magdeburg Bill Shankly stun ( described Milan in as Rotterdam “diminished in 1974, and while isolated” the lowest after he crowd left Liverpool for a European in 1974) final and a – hawkish excluding Maggie this year’s Thatcher games – in – the came wake when of the Soviet Heysel Dinamo disaster Tbilisi – add beat much to another this book’s East historical German side, gravitas. Carl It’s Zeiss a fascinating Jena, in 1981. and The intimate tie portrait was held of how in the the West landscape German city has of altered Dusseldorf, in the making last 50 it years. difficult for both sets of fans to attend because of restrictions