Product Description

"After the Ball" is Nobby Stiles' account of a lifetime spent living and breathing football. Signed to Manchester United at the age of 15, he progressed to the England team and had a starring role in the 1966 World Cup. He is one of only two Englishmen (Bobby Charlton is the other) to win both the World Cup and the European Cup. After playing at the highest level, Nobby Stiles became a manager, then a youth coach at Old Trafford, where he dealt with the new United of Beckham, Scholes, Giggs and the Neville brothers. His appraisals of these players from this exciting period are revealed, as well as studies of unforgettable teammates such as George Best and Bobby Charlton.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #243861 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The euphoria of a small, balding character is the image people recall most happily of England's 1966 World Cup triumph. But, as After The Ball proves, far from being the genial uncle of our collective memory, Nobby Stiles was just 24 on that historic day at Wembley, a vindictive and vicious onfield hard man at the summit of the game--and only five years away from a bitter slide out of the big time into penury.

Naturally there's plenty of 1966 in Stiles' autobiography After The Ball--much of it charmingly candid about the small humanities behind the legend--and plenty too on Stiles' hugely successful Manchester United career, touched by the tragedy of the Munich air disaster. But the darker side of a life in football--whether it be the love-hate relationships Stiles enjoyed and endured with bosses Matt Busby and Alf Ramsey, or the bloody Anglo-Argentine feuds at club and national level--are unexpected highlights. As is the honest appraisal of how and why life after football went so wrong for Stiles. Skint, and slogging round the country in jobs on the fringes of the game, when he was once football royalty, Stiles is honest enough to express the bitterness, resentment and hopelessness he felt, never more so than when sacked by Alex Ferguson after it had seemed United had rescued its former star from the wilderness. Stiles' collaborator, award-winning sports writer James Lawton, may well have given the recollections some structure and polish, but there is a real sense of immediacy and relish in the telling of even the more familiar tales. No doubt Stiles' late-blooming career on the after-dinner speaking circuit has played the major part in the process of reviewing and refining the story of his life in football, with the result that the personal and the humorous drive the narrative to happy effect, but "After The Ball" is no "great times, great mates" sleepwalk. As a player, so as a man: Stiles has plenty of bite. --Alex Hankin

Review
The joyful 1966 World Cup-winning pinnacle of Nobby Stiles's fine career only masks the heartache, pain and battles that the little midfield terrier had to endure in a lifetime of knockbacks. Indeed, he could have called this excellent autobiography Against All Odds. -- The Sunday Times 20030914 A classic of a burgeoning genre, due in no small part to Lawton's sympathetic marshalling of some wonderfully evocative material. -- The Independent 20030825 A captivating tale of a real football man, who had a hard fight to establish himself with Manchester United and in the national team. -- The Independent 20030821 A brilliant autobiography. -- Daily Mail 20030821 As football books go, this is one of the best I've read. -- Daily Mail 20030822

The Independent
A classic of a burgeoning genre, due in no small part to Lawton's sympathetic marshalling of some wonderfully evocative material.

Customer Reviews

Reveals a nice guy and true Red.
Great overview of a career that went to the very top of the game. No sentimentality & lots of straight talking about football. Insights into Old Trafford colleagues past and present from a source of genuine authority - himself. Nobby is a throwback to a period of (rough) innocence where what you gave counted more than what you got, something Nobby may well regret. The man emerges as a working class hero and sound bloke. Recommended.

Emotional and funny
Nobby's autobiography is a gem of a story. From his early days in Collyhurst, playing for the school side, through to the last days of his career with Middlesborough, this, not always affectionate look at his footballing life is engrossing. It's quite a shock to read how low, the man who danced around the Wembley pitch, actually sank in his later life. The fact that he came so close to actually taking his own life was a harrowing but ultimately liberating experience.
The book, of course, contains much of Nobby's experience with Man Utd and England. His vivid recollections of the aftermath of Munich, and the way it affected him, particularly the loss of his idol 'Eddie Coleman', are poignant and sad, but also tinged with barely concealed bitterness. Ultimately, if you want a book that is full of back slapping and recollections of the days when it never rained, then you are best looking elsewhere. 'After the ball', is a frank, honest, sad and funny account of a true footballing legend.

Nobby Tells it like it is.
As A Manchester City Fan who was around for Nobbys career it is quite strange to review a Manchester United player. However, I did prefer the old school when lads like Nobby were working class and not the overpaid arrogant types we witness today. The book was somewhat eventful as you would expect but it is also honest and who could forget that eventful day in 1966 when he danced around wembley. I also, have a soft spot for Nobby because he was a local lad and not least because he once helped City to a draw with a timely own goal in the Manchester derby of 1966-67. Any true football fan should read this.