1980s Rio de Janeiro.There’s only one king in this city and he’s got the mullet, swagger and fake ID to prove it.Introducing Carlos Henrique Raposo, known to all as KAISER.This guy’s got more front than Copacabana beach. He’s the most loveable of rogues with the most common of dreams: to become a professional footballer. And he isn’t about to let trivial details like talent and achievement stand in his way. . . not when he has so many other ways to get what he wants...

The improbable story of a soccer player who scammed his way into a lengthy career…without ever playing in a game.Born in Rio Pardo, Brazil, Carlos Henrique Raposo had dreams of becoming a professional soccer (futbol) player. After a youth career at Botafogo and Flamengo, he had his sights set on the future. Whether given the nickname “Kaiser” due to his resemblance of superstar Franz Beckenbauer or a bottle of Kaiser beer, he used his new-found name to beg...

From the early days of Test cricket to the immortalised handshake offered by Andrew Flintoff to Brett Lee in the Ashes series 2005, cricket has a history of extraordinary moments that embody everything that sets the game apart from any other. The Spirit of Cricket remembers some of the outstanding performances, captivating matches and remarkable incidents that represent the glory of the sport. It also includes contributions from Ricky Ponting, Graeme Smith, Nasser Hussain, Michael Holding,...

Classic World Cup clashes brought to life and re-evaluated by two of the writers of the popular Guardian minute-by-minute football blog. Watching each match in real time and reacting to the twists and turns of the action, Murray and Smyth bring you the real stories of the matches as they happened, not the highlights package or rose-tinted version.From the crowd swarming over the pitch moments before the Brazil-Uruguay classic of 1950 kicked off, to the dubious refereeing d...

From the celebrated mock obituary following England's first-ever defeat by Australia on home soil in 1882, to the on-pitch insults (or 'sledges') of today, ashes cricket has spawned nearly as many memorable quotes as it has balls bowled and runs scored.Gentlemen and Sledgers charts the ebb and flow of Anglo-Australian cricketing fortunes across 131 years and 314 matches by telling the stories behind 100 memorable ashes quotations. From fast bowler Jeff Thomson's classic 'I...

On August 15th 1992, the Premier League kicked off for the very first time to the sound of money. That same season, a new kind of branded commercialism descended across the continent as the European Cup was re-launched as the Champions League. In 1994, the game's oldest trophy, the FA Cup, would become the last of English football's major competitions to fall to commercial sponsors. The early 1990s mark the moment at which the beautiful game, the sport of the common man, wound up on a mark...

* SHORTLISTED FOR THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS *Robin Smith was one of England's most popular cricketers of the 1990s. The Judge, as he was known to all, took on some of the most dangerous fast bowlers of all time with a skill and fearlessness that ensured hero status. His savage square cut drew roars of approval from fans all around the world, especially those of his beloved England and Hampshire. But when he was prematurely dumped from the England set-up at t...

The story of the coolest international football team in history - the 1980s Danish national team - told for the first time in English.The Denmark side of the 1980s was one of the last truly iconic international football teams. Although they did not win a trophy, they claimed something much more important and enduring: glory, and in industrial quantities. They were a bewitching fusion of futuristic attacking football, effortless Scandinavian cool and laid-back livin...

Richie Benaud, who died this year aged 84, was “perhaps the most influential cricketer and cricket personality since the Second World War" according to Gideon Haigh, the world's best cricket historian. He excelled as a batsman, legspin bowler, revolutionary captain – and most of all as a commentator in England and Australia for almost 50 years. He was universally loved for his authority, knowledge, dry wit and generosity of spirit.Benaud in Wisden records the highlights of...

"Threshold, or, how I learned to stop worrying (about what sort of novel this is) and love the narrator, whose brilliance and humor on drugs and literature, sex and boredom and death, leave me in awe." -Rachel Kushner"Fearless and challenging, inventive and compulsive, unique and utterly heartfelt." -John Boyne"Daring and deranged, endlessly entertaining, furiously funny." -Geoff Dyer"Playful, poten...

Brought to you by Penguin.'Isn't everyone's childhood an indoctrination in the more or less deranged outlook of the people who raised them? And isn't growing up for everyone a more or less successful attempt to overcome their conditioning and see clearly, with their own eyes?'Matt Rowland Hill grew up the son of a minister in an evangelical Christian church in south Wales and then south-east England. It was a childhood fraught with bitter family co...

Brought to you by Penguin.In the land of Lapvona, the lord of the land Villiam is cheating the local villagers of their food, their water, their livelihoods. Grotesque and ridiculous, he marries the pregnant and tongueless ex-nun Agata, whom he believes will make him God, and his son will be the second Christ.It's a land of murder, cannibalism, incest and rape. Despite all of the characters' individual inadequacies and madness, you find yourself completely ...