description: LIVING TO PLAY examines the slow and sometomes painful development of the professional English footballer through the last one hundred years. Written by sports historian John Harding in close collaboration with Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), the book looks at how players were recruited, how they were trained and how their lives were regulated. The book draws also upon first-hand experience, memoirs and interviews and looks at the stresses and strains of performing before an exacting and demanding public - and how such adulation can sometimes turn sour. It provides a fascinating glimpse of the off-field lives of England's favorite athletes.
language: English
title: Living to Play: From Soccer Slaves to Socceratti: A Social History of the Professionals
titlecomplete: Living to Play: From Soccer Slaves to Socceratti: A Social History of the Professionals
ratings_count: 1
publisher: Robson Books