Product Description

The fascinating, insightful and at times hilarious memoirs of one of the most gifted and enigmatic British footballers of the last 25 years. Nicknamed "Le God" by the Southampton faithful, Matt Le Tissier was not cast from the same mould as 99% of other professional footballers. A real "one-off" if every there was one, he was a one-club man in a 16-year career that brought little in the way of trophies but countless plaudits from footballs fans and commentators alike. To the old school brigade he was a "luxury player", someone with a less than ideal work rate and waistline who simply wouldn't conform to the blueprint of a typically hard-working, unsophisticated British player. Terry Venables and Glenn Hoddle found it all too easy to leave him out of their England squads. But to the vast majority Le Tissier was a maverick to be treasured, a flair player who lit up every match he played in and delighted fans with his sumptuous technique and elan for the beautiful game. In fact, the kind of skilful, inventive player and scorer of wonderful goals this country produces all too rarely. Did he simply enjoy the comfort zone of being a big fish in a small pond? Or did he display commendable loyalty in staying with Southampton for his entire career? Did he shun opportunities to move on? Were England managers right not to pick him so many times? Would Fabio Capello pick him for England now? Does the British game discourage his style of play? And how much would he be worth in today's transfer market? Taking Le Tiss is the great man's first chance to answer all these questions and many more. It is also a delightfully self-deprecating and witty story from a player who was more of a Big-Mac-and-fries than a chicken-and-beans man.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #789 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

About the Author
Guernsey-born Matt Le Tissier is 40 years old and is rated by fans of Southampton FC as their greatest ever player. An attacking midfielder, he is the second-highest ever scorer for the club in a career which spanned 540 matches and 209 goals. He missed just once from the penalty spot in 48 attempts. Le Tissier was the first midfielder to score 100 goals in the Premier League, but despite his phenomenal form at club level he was mysteriously capped just eight times for his country. During the 1993/94 season he scored a remarkable 30 goals from midfield for a team that only just avoided relegation. The following season he won the coveted Match of the Day "Goal of the Season" award for his drifting 40-yard lob against Blackburn Rovers. He has been retired from the game for seven years but is now making a name for himself as one of the most popular pundits on SkySports' much-loved Gillette Soccer Saturday TV programme.

Customer Reviews

Great to hear from Le God at last!
I bought this on pre-order for my other half who NEVER reads books EVER!! he is a massive Le Tissier fan and has a huge knowledge of Saints (like many other fans) as he has supported them since he was a boy. He could not put the book down; our house has never been so quiet for 3 days (except the running commentary I got when he came across lots of interesting stories that he had read). My other half loved the book and the stories, he liked how Matts own humour came over, and considering how much he thought he knew about Saints, Le Tissier and the league he still learnt more than he thought he knew.

Memories galore!
Before you read further I must declare an interest - I'm a Saints fan who attended almost every home game, and some away, during the whole period that Matt LeTissier was playing for Southampton. I saw all the spectacular goals at The Dell with the exception of the flipped-up free kick against Wimbledon. The hairs on the back of my neck are upstanding at the thought of the two against Newcastle one evening following his recall to the side by Ian Branfoot. A smile comes to my face automatically at the thought of his chip over Peter Schmeical in the 6-2 win (as Matt points out this was NOT the even-more-famous "grey-shirt" game). And as for his goal near the end of that last game at The Dell.... well, I'm lost for words.

Anyway, you will understand that I am fairly biased and Matt was a hero for me from the age of 12 until he retired. So, for someone who rarely buys autobiographies and who reads them even less often (yes, I've bought but not read several biographies), it was quite something for me even to pick this up. But I had to, mainly because in the absence of a video player in our house anymore, I've not watched the "Unbelievable" or "First 100 goals" videos in quite some time and I wanted to trawl back through the memory banks once more.

And what a great trip it was to read this book. It all came flooding back, from arriving at The Dell and taking my place at the back of the terrace, the smell of cigarettes and pies filling my nose and the anticipation building as the players came out onto the pitch. Watching Matt warm up by trying (trying!) to hit the bar from the edge of the penalty area, hitting volleys into the top corner and generally taking the mickey out of our own keeper. Happy days.

That side of things, the memories, the recall etc, were great. But what I didn't really get from this book, with the exception of discovering that Matt himself tried and failed to fix the time of the first thrown in during a game (as part of a spread-betting scam, since reported on the BBC website) and revelations about a club tour to Northern Ireland (hilarious), was much insider stories and gossip. Yes, there was a series of match summaries, and most of his goals were mentioned, most of the memorable games and hatricks etc, and he talked a lot about the comings and goings of managers, but there was very little we didn't already know.

The book was ghost-written by Graham Hiley, who was the chap writing about Saints for The Daily Echo at the time, and who I relied on (in the pre-internet days when Clubcall was simply too expensive to even dial the number) for club news, and the book could have been a heavily abridged version of all the writing Graham did for the newspaper over the years.

It was, however, a very nice, feelgood read for a Saints fan and, I suspect, for fans of sporting autobiographies in general. He doesn't talk about his personal life at all, really, and for me this is a relief. The personal life bits are generally why I don't like biographies.

So my advice to any Saints fan is BUY IT!!! It's not a particularly difficult read and, once all the memories start flooding back, you won't want to put it down. Plus it has some very, very funny moments.

Thanks Matt for all the good times, your goals are the markers by which I keep my memories or being a teenager in order. Happy, happy days.

Best book title ever?
Wonderful story of one of the greats of the game, sadly a bit forgotten outside of Southampton. It's amazing to see just how far the Premiership has come since Le God's heyday in the 90's. And I'm not saying that's a good thing.

The stories are hilarious, too. I'd recount a couple of the better ones here, but the folks at Amazon probably would pull the review.