The Outsider

A splendid history of football’s complicated scapegoats. * Daily Telegraph *In THE OUTSIDER, Jonathan Wilson offers an ebullient history of the goalkeeper and tries to work out what it is that attracts the spiritual, the quizzical, the odd and the reflective to the position… Wilson offers a picture of the goalkeeper as an outsider, but also more of an everyman than you might think. * David Goldblatt *A splendid history of the goalkeeper, whose lot has tended to be a thankless one (just ask Joe Hart). Wilson tells tales of violence against goalies, both verbal and physical, along with the burden of psychic stress carried by these singular players. * Sunday Telegraph *The ever-readable Wilson explores the psychological pressures of being cast in the role of the scapegoat… Thought-provoking and full of interesting detail… this book scores on every level. * Independent on Sunday *From the obese to the heroic and the corrupt, goalkeepers provide endless anecdotal material. Wilson weaves it together skilfully, from Victorian times to the present, from Charterhouse to Cameroon. The case for the position provoking a kind of existential unease is elegantly made. * Literary Review *From Albert Camus to John Paul II, and all points in between - a superb account of the men who wear different shirts and play be different rules from everybody else. * Readers Digest *Wilson’s prodigious energy doesn’t seem to dilute the quality of what he comes up with and this meticulous study of the goalkeeping art is characterised by the attention to detail that he brings to everything he writes… The Outsider is a terrific history of its subject. It wears its knowledgeable perspective lightly and deftly works its vast research into the text without battering you over the head with it. Wilson can always be relied upon to come up with something a little bit different and a little bit special, and this has plenty of both. * When Saturday Comes *From Albert Camus to John Paul II, and all points in between - a superb account of the men who wear different shirts and play be different rules from everybody else. * READERS DIGEST *A splendid history of the goalkeeper, whose lot has tended to be a thankless one (just ask Joe Hart). Wilson tells tales of violence against goalies, both verbal and physical, along with the burden of psychic stress carried by these singular players * THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *

Jonathan Wilson is the football correspondent for the FINANCIAL TIMES, and writes for the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH and GUARDIAN online. His work has appeared in the INDEPENDENT, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, FOURFOURTWO and WHEN SATURDAY COMES. He is the critically acclaimed author of BEHIND THE CURTAIN: TRAVELS IN EASTERN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL, SUNDERLAND: A CLUB TRANSFORMED, NOBODY EVER SAYS THANK YOU, a biography of Brian Clough, and INVERTING THE PYRAMID: A HISTORY OF FOOTBALL TACTICS, which was football book of the year in the UK and Italy and was shortlisted for the WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR.

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