For Whom The Ball Rolls - Softcover

The ex-pro sitting in front of the TV, interminably replaying the last moment of his career; the political activist who's struggling to concentrate on a political seminar because he knows a vital international match is being shown in the bar; the failed, alcoholic actor who reflects on life from inside the club mascot; the quiet left-back who never speaks to any of his team-mates . . .

Ian Plenderleith gets inside the heads of all his characters in this wonderfully eclectic collection of stories with football as their base, though not necessarily their theme. Beyond that are a handful of non-football stories to prove that life does exist away from the sporting turf, touching on subjects such as the loneliness of mail-order brides and deranged central European traffic police.