Backpage Sports Stories

Podcast

Pol Ballus: Pep’s City, The Making of a Superteam

In the ninth episode in this new season of Between the Lines, Martin talks to 26-year-old Catalan journalist Pol Ballus, who reflects on his four-year journey from waiting tables in a Liverpool tapas restaurant to co-authoring Pep’s City: The Making of a Superteam. Pol also tells us what its like to report from inside the Man City machine and have direct access to Pep Guardiola, as well as his relationship with co-author Lu Martin.

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Podcast

Pep’s City: Behind the Scenes with BackPage

In the eighth episode in this new season of Between the Lines, we take you behind the scenes of their latest bestseller, Pep’s City: The Making of a Superteam. We talk about the huge editorial challenges we faced and our productive relationship with both authors, Lu Martin and Pol Ballus.

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Podcast

New Season of Between the Lines!

Welcome to the second full season of Between the Lines: The Stories Behind Great Sports Writing. This series has been a long time in the planning and recording – we wanted to get the right combination of guests and a good balance between books, long-form journalism and news stories. We hope you enjoy. And if you do, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Read More →

Blog

Throwing a Curveball: How to Land a Baseball Book for the ages in the UK

I know nothing about baseball. Correction: I knew nothing about baseball. Until I read Astroball, that is. So began my immersion in a sport that I had never understood or held much interest to me. Read More →

Blog

Our favourite US sports books of the century

Last month, we published our second US sports book. Astroball: The New Way to Win it All is the best sports books we’ve read in recent years, and one of the best we’ve ever read. We are very excited to bring the UK edition of Ben Reiter’s book to a British audience. Read More →

Blog

NEW BOOK: Astroball – The New Way to Win it All

One of the reasons we founded BackPage was to introduce more of the US sports writing we loved to the UK market. We often had long conversations about writers such as Budd Schulberg, David Halberstam, George Plimpton, John Feinstein, Michael Lewis and Ring Lardner. The Best American Sports Writing of the 20th Century became our bible. However, when our second book, Barca, took off, we found ourselves focusing mainly on European sports writing. Read More →

Blog

‘Going Anderlecht’ with Vincent Kompany

In an exclusive extract from Football 2.0 by Grant Wahl, the Manchester City defender explains how his attacking instincts were honed at his first club, Anderlecht. Read More →

Blog

Deadlines and Darts with Dele: Day Eight – New School

Our new book, Deadlines and Darts with Dele, by Jonathan Northcroft, is his World Cup diary. As Sunday Times football correspondent, Jonathan spent his summer up close and personal with the England team during their deep run. But as well as an inside look into the Three Lions’ adventures in Russia, this is a book about what it’s like to cover a World Cup as a top-level football writer. Read More →

Blog

NEW BOOK: Deadlines and Darts with Dele

I USED to count the days until Jonathan Northcroft left the country. This is not a slight on the man himself. It’d be hard to meet a finer fellow in journalism. You see, around the early noughties, Jonny was working for Sunday Times Scotland as their chief football writer. Rumour had it that he was moving to a north of England beat, which would lead to a reshuffle on the Scottish desk. Read More →

Blog

Tribute: How a leap of faith propelled Alan Gilzean to the heights of the game

This callow 14-year-old, a schoolboy during the day and berry picker in the Perthshire countryside during the evenings, is laying the groundwork for a career in professional football. He does not know this yet. But one day, for a time, he will be the most-feared centre-forward in Europe and arguably the best header of a football ever. Read More →