England Football: The Biography

1872 - 2022

Paul Hayward

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN:
  9781471184369
• Print ISBN:
  9781471184376

LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR PRIZE
‘The greatest story in English sport told beautifully by one of its greatest writers’ Gary Lineker
'A spellbinding piece of work' Oliver Holt; 'Absolute tour de force' Henry Winter

Award-winning writer Paul Hayward delivers a compelling and unmissable account of the story of the England men's football team, published as they prepare for the World Cup in Qatar. 

On 30 November 1872, England took on Scotland at Hamilton Crescent in Glasgow, a match that is regarded as the first international fixture. More than 5,000 fans watched the two sides play out a 0-0 draw. It was the first of more than a thousand games played by the side, and the beginning of a national love affair that unites the country in a way that few other events can match.

In Hayward's brilliant new biography of the team, based on interviews with dozens of past and present players and coaches, including Viv Anderson, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and current coach Gareth Southgate, we get a vivid portrait of all aspects of the team's story, reliving highlights such as the World Cup victory in 1966 and the time when football came home in Euro 96, as well as the low points when the players were obliged to give the Nazi salute in 1938 and the era when England's hooligan fans brought shame on the nation. From Stanley Matthews and Bobby Moore through to more modern heroes such as Paul Gascoigne, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane, Hayward brings a large cast of characters to life.

For anyone who wants to understand England football, and why it means so much to so many, England Football: The Biography is an essential and vital read.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: 1872: The Birth of England, and International Football
• Chapter 2: Too Much Too Young: the First Captain
• Chapter 3: ‘Harmless Lunatics’ Take Aim: the First Scorer
• Chapter 4: Early Heroes and the English Way
• Chapter 5: Evelyn Lintott: the Dead of the First World War
• Chapter 6: Dangerous Pupils: the World Catches Up, 1919-39
• Chapter 7: Tools of Appeasement: Politics and the 1930s
• Chapter 8: Proud People: the Great Street Footballers
• Chapter 9: Culture Shock: the World Cup Debut of 1950
• Chapter 10: Insularity and the Lessons of the 1950s
• Chapter 11: Duncan Edwards and the Heart of England
• Chapter 12: Winterbottom’s End
• Chapter 13: Alf Ramsey: the General on Manoeuvres
• Chapter 14: England Awakes: the 1966 World Cup
• Chapter 15: The Eternal Final
• Chapter 16: Sit Down, Harold, and Calm Yourself
• Chapter 17: You Only Live Once: the ‘Boys of ’66’
• Chapter 18: 1970: Sunset in Mexico
• Chapter 19: Ramsey’s Fall and Suburban Exile
• Chapter 20: The Blazers
• Chapter 21: Don Revie and the Shadow of Clough
• Chapter 22: Ron Greenwood: West Ham to the Rescue, Part Two
• Chapter 23: Viv Anderson’s Breakthrough, Diversity and Race
• Chapter 24: Unruly Fans and the Burden of Shame
• Chapter 25: Bobby Robson and the Curse of Maradona
• Chapter 26: Euro ’88: the Dark before the Dawn
• Chapter 27: The Beautiful Pain of Italia ’90
• Chapter 28: Gascoigne versus Gazza
• Chapter 29: Graham Taylor’s Fatal Compromise
• Chapter 30: Euro ’96: Your Country Needs You
• Chapter 31: The Next Life: Glenn Hoddle and Continuity
• Chapter 32: Demolished: Kevin Keegan, and the Old Wembley
• Chapter 33: Hold the Front page: Sven-Göran Eriksson and the New Celebrity Age
• Chapter 34: The Golden Generation
• Chapter 35: Steve McClaren: the Hardest Decade
• Chapter 36: The England Shirt Weighs Heavy: Fabio Capello, Bemused
• Chapter 37: Roy Hodgson and the Seeds of Change
• Chapter 38: The Titanic Goes Down Again
• Chapter 39: More than a Football Team: Gareth Southgate’s Cultural Reset
• Chapter 40: Back in the Big Time: England as Tournament Contenders Again
• Postscript
• Photographs
• Acknowledgements
• Statistics
• Sources in Text
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright