IN NO particular order, we’ve selected 28 our favourite sports books of 2022.
You can click through on the link in each heading for more info on the book in question.
1. The Rodfather: Inside the Beautiful (Ugly, Ridiculous, Hilarious) Game – Roddy Collins and Paul Howard
Roddy Collins, former manager of Bohemians, Derry City and Carlisle United among others, recounts his career in football in his customary honest and witty style, with the help of journalist Paul Howard.
2. 1999: Manchester United, the Treble and All That – Matt Dickinson
A comprehensive reminiscence of one of the famous seasons in football history, featuring new interviews and insights from several of the key figures involved in arguably Manchester United’s greatest triumph.
3. Warrior: A Champion’s Incredible Search for His Identity – Tris Dixon
The incredible story of Matthew Saad Muhammad, from being abandoned by his parents and left to live in a Catholic orphanage to his rise to become WBC light-heavyweight champion from 1979 to 1981 and his sad decline in later years.
4. Dooley: A Family Memoir – Kevin O’Brien
Written by former The42.ie sportswriter Kevin O’Brien, it is the story of Joe, Billy and Johnny Dooley, three brothers who made the Offaly hurling team together in the ’90s, and helped their county achieve All-Ireland glory.
5. Kellie – Kellie Harrington and Roddy Doyle
Ghostwritten by acclaimed Irish novelist Roddy Doyle, the book documents Harrington’s upbringing in Dublin’s north inner city to becoming an Olympic gold medallist last year despite not taking up boxing until late in her teens and fighting in the challenging environment of an otherwise all-male club.
6. Scoring Goals In The Dark – Clare Shine and Gareth Maher
The story of former Ireland international Clare Shine, detailing her prodigious rise as she earned a first international call-up at the age of 13 to the struggles with addiction and depression that threatened to derail her life and career as she rose to prominence in the sport.
7. Phil: The Rip-Roaring Biography of Golf’s Most Colourful Superstar – Alan Shipnuck
Alan Shipnuck’s controversial and unauthorised biography of one of golf’s most interesting and divisive figures, ‘Phil’ is an insightful and compassionate portrait of the multifaceted superstar.
8. Limerick: An Autobiography In Nine Lives – Arthur James O’Dea
Focusing on a diverse range of figures including Micky Mackey, Joe McGrath, Breda Quaid, and Shane Dowling among others, Arthur James O’Dea finds a unique and fascinating way to document the fortunes of the Limerick hurling team over the past century.
9. Why Not A Warrior? by Gemma O’Connor and Sinead Farrell
Written in collaboration with Sinead Farrell of The42.ie, ‘Why not a Warrior’ explores in detail the life of the most decorated camogie player in the modern history of the game and her equally interesting experience off the pitch, including reflections on her job as a sergeant in the Irish army.
10. Second Sight: Rugby and Redemption – Ian McKinley and Gerry Thornley
The extraordinary and improbable story of Irish rugby player Ian McKinley, who was forced to retire prematurely following a horrific injury that caused the loss of sight in his left eye, but against the odds, the accomplished out-half managed to come back and gradually returned to elite sport, ultimately lining out at international level with Italy.
11. Muhammad Ali: Fifteen Rounds In The Wilderness – Dave Hannigan
There have been no shortage of books written on Muhammad Ali, but the majority tend to focus primarily on his glory years. Irish writer Dave Hannigan takes the relatively novel approach of honing in on the decade and a half when the spotlight was beginning to fade and the ravages of age and the brutal toll that comes with a long career in boxing were firmly setting in, with his book beginning with the low ebb of defeat by Trevor Berbick in December 1981 and culminating in the poignant lighting of the Olympic flame in Atlanta in July 1996.
12. The Last Busby Babe: The Autobiography of Sammy McIlroy – Wayne Barton
Sammy McIlroy has lived quite a life, making over 400 appearances for Manchester United and playing in two World Cups with Northern Ireland, ‘The Last Busy Babe’ is an entertaining account of these years and also of his later underexplored time as manager of his country and surprise success with Macclesfield Town among others.
13. Life Begins In Leitrim: From Kurdistan to Croke Park – Zak Moradi and Niall Kelly
As origin stories go, Leitrim’s Zak Moradi’s is an especially powerful one. Told in collaboration with The42.ie editor Niall Kelly, the Kurdish-Irish hurler explains his unlikely route to Croke Park, having been born in a refugee camp in Ramadi, Iraq before moving to the unfamiliar environment of rural Ireland aged 11 and rising to the considerable challenges that came his way thereafter.
14. Your Show – Ashley Hickson-Lovence
A poetic, novelistic biography akin to David Peace’s ‘The Damned United’ turns out to be the perfect form for writer Ashley Hickson-Lovence to document the rise of trailblazing Premier League referee Uriah Rennie, encompassing his humble beginnings from an immigrant family, growing up in a deprived area of Sheffield as well as his later graduation to become one of the most well-known faces in English football and a highly respected figure away from football to boot, owing to his charity work and role as a community advocate.
15. Beyond Good and Evil: A Life in Boxing – Glyn Rhodes and Mark Turley
The story of Glyn Rhodes, the man who has spent more than 40 years as a boxer, trainer, manager, and promoter, featuring insights on Naseem Hamed, Johnny Nelson, Herol Graham, Clinton Woods, the British Boxing Board of Control and his complex relationship with Brendan Ingle.
A book about football data may not seem like an idea that has particularly widespread appeal, but New York Times journalist Rory Smith expertly finds a way of making a narrative about computers and statistics both riveting and human.
17. My Hidden Race – Anyika Onuora and Jonathan Drennan
One of the most enlightening and important sports books released this year, ‘My Hidden Race’ describes the stark realities of life as a black female British athlete told via the perceptive lens of the three-time Olympian.
18. Away Days: Thirty Years of Irish Footballers in the Premier League – Gareth Maher
Celebrating 30 years of Irish footballers in the Premier League, Gareth Maher’s book includes interviews with several of the national team’s biggest stars in recent years, including Seamus Coleman, Jonathan Walters, and Niall Quinn,
19. The Game: A Journey into the Heart of Sport – Tadhg Coakley
Written by celebrated Irish novelist Tadhg Coakley, ‘The Game’ eloquently explores the question ‘Why is sport so important to us?’ through its author’s personal recollections both as a fan and participant.
20. Blood, Brawn, Brains and Broken Noses: Puglism, a Very British Art – Chris Sykes
An intriguing, historical meditation on the sport of boxing, linking it to 19th-century philosophies such as Social Darwinism, Muscular Christianity and Rational Recreation among other intelligent and original angles.
21. Golden: Why Belgian Football is More Than One Generation – James Kelly
A comprehensive account of Belgian football’s history, focusing on their latest generation of great footballers, but also other memorable sides such as the team that surprised everyone by reaching the semi-finals of the 1986 World Cup and the story behind one of the most influential footballers ever – Jean-Marc Bosman.
22. England Football: The Biography: 1872 – 2022 - Paul Hayward
Acclaimed sportswriter Paul Hayward provides a really interesting look at the history of the English football team from their early years of underachievement that saw them lag behind Europe’s top footballing countries to their improbable World Cup triumph in 1966 to more recent years where they have tried with mixed results to fit an enviable array of talented footballers into an effective, coherent system.
23. Two Brothers: The life and times of Bobby and Jackie Charlton – Jonathan Wilson
Jonathan Wilson skilfully interweaves the stories of brothers with polar opposite personalities who also happened to be two of the most iconic footballing figures in the last century, using their respective career trajectories to tell a broader story of what it said about English and (sometimes) Irish society of the time of their heydays.
24. Blood on the Crossbar: The Dictatorship’s World Cup – Rhys Richards
The 1978 World Cup in Argentina remains arguably the most infamous in the tournament’s history. In journalist Rhys Richards’s impeccably researched look at the context for this tainted competition, which had a markedly unsavoury and often violent backdrop, readers will find plenty of parallels with more modern-day examples of sportswashing projects, including Qatar 2022.
25. A Woman’s Game: The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Women’s Football – Suzanne Wrack
The Guardian journalist Suzanne Wrack’s wide-ranging and illuminating account of the rise of women’s football, vividly detailing the various obstacles that the sport’s male gatekeepers have invariably put in its circuitous path to the top, is a must-read for anyone with a keen interest in the history of the game.
26. Unforgettable: Rugby, Dementia and the Fight of My Life – Steve Thompson
An unflinching account of former England rugby star Steve Thompson’s battle with early-onset dementia, ‘Unforgettable’ is an uncomfortable but necessary read for anyone with a genuine passion for the sport.
27. God Is Dead: The Rise and Fall of Frank Vandenbroucke, Cycling’s Great Wasted Talent
Written by Andy McGrath, a freelance journalist and the former editor of Rouleur magazine, the harrowing story of Frank Vandenbroucke is a powerful illustration and warning of the perils of doping in high-level sport, recalling the tragically short life of the man who has been dubbed “the Johan Cruyff of cycling”.
28. Beryl: In Search of Britain’s Greatest Athlete – Jeremy Wilson
Winner of the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, some might initially balk at the description of Beryl Burton as ‘Britain’s Greatest Athlete’ given her relatively low profile compared to some other notable figures, but Jeremy Wilson provides a convincing case in his tribute to this elusive and remarkable figure.
