No Hunger in Paradise

Award-winning author of The Nowhere Men and Living on the Volcano is back to complete his football trilogy with a new book that tells the inside story of becoming a professional footballer. "What's your dream, son?" A six year-old boy, head bowed, mumbles the eternal answer: "Be a footballer..." (St [...]
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Award-winning author of The Nowhere Men and Living on the Volcano is back to complete his football trilogy with a new book that tells the inside story of becoming a professional footballer. "What's your dream, son?" A six year-old boy, head bowed, mumbles the eternal answer: "Be a footballer..." (Steadman Scott), football's most unlikely talent scout, smiles indulgently, and takes him in from the street. He knows the odds. Only 180 of the 1.5 million boys who play organised youth football in England will become a Premier League pro. That's a success rate of 0.012 per cent. How and why do the favoured few make it? What separates the good from the great? Who should they trust - the coach, the agent or their parents? Michael Calvin provides the answers on a journey from non-league grounds to hermetically sealed Premier League palaces, via gang-controlled sink estates and the England team's inner sanctum. He interviews decision makers, behavioural specialists, football agents and leading coaches. He shares the hopes and fears of players and their parents. He exposes bullying and a black economy in which children are commodities, but remains true to the dream.