Keeper of Dreams: One Man's Controversial Story of Life in the English Premiership
By (Author) Ronald Reng
Translated by Shaun Whiteside
Vintage Publishing
Yellow Jersey Press
15th August 2004
5th August 2004
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Association football (Soccer)
796.33426092
Winner of British Sports Book Awards: Biography 2004
Paperback
240
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 15mm
171g
John Hendrie, Barnsley's ex-manager, on Lars Leese: 'Lars Leese is a shambles. He's a loser who never achieved anything.' Dave Hill, in the Guardian, on The Keeper of Dreams: 'Leese's outsider story takes us...to the true heartbeat of our national game' At the age of 28, German goalkeeper Lars Leese was catapulted from a minor league football field somewhere near Cologne to a small industrial town in the north of England. Something of a culture shock, certainly, but nothing compared to finding himself in goal for Barnsley playing the mighty Liverpool at Anfield in front of over 45,000 spectators. Plucked from obscurity and playing in one of the most important leagues in the world, Leese experienced in real life what thousands of boys - and men - can only dream of: stepping out of the crowd and onto a Premiership pitch. Lars Leese's foray into the wild world of professional football lasted only three years, but his journey from computer software salesman to Premiership goalie is a remarkable story. Here, Ronald Reng traces his stratospheric rise and equally alarming descent: the resulting narrative is an indispensable antidote to the traditional footballing briography and a unique
Gem of a biography -- Paul Cardwell * UK Regional Press *
Ronald Reng has been based in London for the last five years as a freelance sports journalist. He has written about English football for, amongst others, the Suddeutsche Zeitung, and Zurich's Tagesanzeiger.