FRANKFURT 2017 SPORTS HOTLIST

All enquiries to rebecca@rebeccawinfield.com (Tel 07932 673 244)FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR: TABLES 27K AND 28K

JURGEN KLOPP: BRING THE NOISE by Raphael Honigstein

NEW Yellow Jersey. UK & Commonwealth.

Jürgen Klopp was confirmed as manager of Liverpool FC in October 2015 to a rapturous reception. His super-sized personality and all-or-nothing style of football and management made him the perfect choice to pump up the volume at Anfield and lift Liverpool out of a slump.

The appointment sparked hysteria in the city with fans and club officials delighted to get the coach they’d long admired from afar and eager to see the impact he would have on the club and the Premier League.

Klopp is the manager to turn players into winners, to get that little bit more from them and transform teams like mid-table Borussia Dortmund into title winners and one of Europe’s most admired sides in just two seasons. He’s authentic, approachable and funny, charming media and fans alike. He’s also merciless and exceptionally driven, his quick temper bubbling away barely under the surface.

Expectations have been high and even when results haven’t gone their way, Liverpool’s exciting football and Klopp’s pitch-side passion have enthralled, culminating in a triumphant return to Champions League football in 2017/18.

Renowned football correspondent on both the German and English games, Raphael Honigstein tells the definitive story of Klopp’s career, transformative footballing genius and how he is bringing the noise to Anfield.

Publication: November 2017All rights: DLA Sold: USA (Nation), Germany (Ullstein), Denmark (ArtPeople)

EDGE: WHAT THE BUSINESS WORLD CAN LEARN FROM FOOTBALL’S TALENT HOTHOUSE by Ben Lyttleton

NEW HarperCollins. UK & Commonwealth.

Finding the next superstar is a challenge for all businesses. There may be certain measurable skills that you can glean from CVs but the intangible qualities that make up the next generation of leaders are harder to spot. There needs to be a revolution in the way we measure talent.

In this book, we look at football, arguably the world’s biggest talent hothouse, to learn about these immeasurable

qualities. These are personality traits from the head up that differentiate the good from the great; qualities like resilience, ambition, leadership, decision-making, adaptability, composure under pressure. You can’t polish those on a CV.

M/s delivery: May 2017Primary Agent: David LuxtonAll rights: DLA

SEVENS HEAVEN by Ben Ryan & Tom Fordyce

NEW Orion. UK & Commonwealth.

This is the story of how one man changed a nation, how that nation changed the man and how together they made sporting history.

It is late summer 2013. Ben Ryan, a red-haired, 40-something, spectacle-wearing Englishman, is given 20 minutes to decide whether he wants to coach Fiji’s Sevens team, with the aim of taking them to the nation’s first ever Olympic medal. He has never been to Fiji. There has not even been a discussion of contracts or salary.

Ryan says yes. With that simple word he sets in motion an extraordinary journey that will encompass witchdoctors and interfering prime ministers, sun-smeared dawns and devastating cyclones, intense friendships and bitter rows, phone taps and wild nation-wide parties. It will end in Rio with a performance that not only wins Olympic gold but touches fresh heights for rugby union, with Ben made a tribal chief and hundreds of Fijian babies given his name, with his 12 players global stars and heroes forever back home.

It is Cool Runnings transposed from ice to tropical grass, Moneyball for a world without spreadsheets, Leicester City 2016 meets Brazil 1970.

Publication: TBCPrimary Agent: David LuxtonAll rights: DLA

A YEAR IN CYCLING by The Cycling Podcast

NEW Yellow Jersey. UK & Commonwealth.

The Cycling Podcast was launched in 2013 by journalists and authors Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe. It is regularly among the top sports podcasts on iTunes, hitting the no. 1 spot at the start of the 2016 Tour de France. In 2015 the podcast was downloaded 3.8m times; in 2016, this figure jumped to more than 8m…

This book will capture in writing and photography the very essence of the podcast that makes it so popular. Unlike any other cycling book out there, ‘A Year in Cycling’ will aim to be both informative and humorous on the past year in cycling.

Featuring a host of familiar names, the book will take the reader through the cycling season through the eyes (and ears) of the podcast team.

Delivery date: October 2017Publication: March 2018 Primary Agent: David LuxtonAll rights: DLA

FULL GAS: THE HISTORY OF CYCLING TACTICS by Peter Cossins

NEW Yellow Jersey. WEL.

The intricacies and complexities of cycling are what makes it so appealing. An eye for opportunity and a quick mind are just as essential to success as a 'big engine' or good form.

The focus on tactics and strategy begins in the early 20th Century, when the sport's leading performers employed pacemakers aboard tandems, before motorised transport was adopted to increase speed further behind motorbikes and cars.

Over the years the races have developed and fresh approaches to tactics required. How to deal with summit finishes? How a directeur sportif benefits his riders? How did a sprint train come about and how to use it as a most effective weapon?

Want to really understand cycling? You need Full Gas.

Delivery date: 30 November 2017Publication: June 2018 Primary Agent: David LuxtonAll rights: DLA

THE MEDAL FACTORY by Kenny Pryde

NEW Pursuit (Profile Books). UK & Commonwealth.

In 1984, British Cycling was under funded, under resourced and under achieving. This book reveals how sports scientist Peter Keen and rider Chris Boardman transformed British cycling’s fortunes by winning gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics using radical coaching methods.

That gold medal was the starting point of a UK cycling revolution that would eventually lead to the first-ever British winner of the Tour de France and the historic multiple triumphs of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Experienced cycling journalist Kenny Pryde will reveal to what extent Keen and Boardman, followed by Dave Brailsford, Shane Sutton and Dr Steve Peters created a new blueprint for performance.

Full of exclusive interviews with the people that made this revolution happen, The Medal Factory shows for the first time how a niche sport was transformed into a mainstream media headline generator.

Publication date: Spring 2018Primary Agent: David LuxtonAll rights: DLA

BLACK BLOOD: HOW ONE TINY NATION CONQUERED THE WORLD by Peter Bills

Macmillan. UK & Commonwealth.

“New Zealand rugby? They are the most insular and secretive rugby nation in the world. They are, also, unbelievably good; maybe the most successful sporting team ever!” Bob Dwyer, Australian coach.

Peter Bills is an award-winning British rugby writer, long respected in the game worldwide, the author of 17 sports books, mostly on rugby, and a prolific contributor to the ‘New Zealand Herald’.

Over the last eleven months, he has worked tirelessly to forge an understanding and relationship with those at the heart of New Zealand rugby. He has now reached an agreement with the New Zealand Rugby Union and All Blacks management. He will be given exclusive access to the senior All Blacks coaches and management, NZRU officials and the All Black players for interviews, which will be at the heart of this book.

Publication: Autumn 2018Primary Agent: David LuxtonAll rights: DLA Sold: Marabout, France

’89: THE GOAL THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING by Amy Lawrence

Century. UK & Commonwealth.

It was, in the immortal words of commentator Brian Moore as memorised by countless Arsenal supporters of a certain age, ‘Up for grabs now…” The it in question was the closest title decider in football, a moment enriched by the kind of dramatic twist that makes sport such absorbing natural theatre.

On May 26th 1989 Arsenal travelled to Liverpool in a complex, unique and emotionally profound set of circumstances. It was first against second, David against Goliath, upstarts against the establishment. The thoroughbreds from Liverpool were expected to defend the title they won routinely throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Arsenal needed to win the match by two clear goals to usurp them as Champions. That would leave both teams with a near identical record - same wins, same draws, same defeats and same goal difference. The decisive factor would be as slight as goals scored. 

The Goal That Changed Everything is a story about an emotive era in football, and a sporting moment so unusual it felt instantly historic. It is instructive to compare one newspaper’s choice of headline before and after the match. From “You Don’t Have A Prayer, Arsenal” to “The Greatest Story Ever Told”. 

UK Publication: Summer 2019Translation rights: David Luxton Associates

THOMAS DEKKER: MY BATTLE by Thomas Dekker

Ebury. UK & Commonwealth.

'I have success, money, women. I've been lionised by the public and the media. The world is at my feet. I've spread my wings and here I am, soaring above everything and everyone. But in reality, the descent has already begun.'

Thomas Dekker was set to become one of pro cycling’s next big stars. But before long, he found himself sucked in by the lure of hedonistic highs and troubled by the intense pressure to perform.

In The Descent, Dekker tells his story of hotel room blood bags, shady rendezvous

with dealers and partying with prostitutes at the Tour de France. This is Dekker’s journey from youthful idealism to a sordid path of excess and doping that lays bare cycling’s darkest secrets like never before.

UK Publication: July 2017Translation rights: David Luxton AssociatesSold: Overamstel, Netherlands, Velo Press, USA, Covadonga Germany.

THE MAN AND HIS BIKE by Wilfried de Jong (translation by David Doherty)

Ebury. WEL.

…The helicopter is hanging above our heads. A woman with a child waves up to the family watching at home. Motorcycles tear past, sirens wailing. And here they come, the riders. Like a vast chameleon the peloton continually changes shape and colour. Four hundred tyres sing to us. Music for a Sunday afternoon.

Here they come. Here they are. There they go. It’s all over, consigned to the past once more. 

We can still see the mud-spattered backside of a straggler, sitting crooked on his bike after a fall. The skin of his elbow has been grazed raw, the dirt of the Tour ground into the wound. But he must go on. The Tour waits for no man…

Wilfried de Jong is a star of Dutch sports writing and broadcasting. In this award-winning collection of cycling tales, his comic, melancholic, existential charm unlocks a sport that involves so much pain, punishment, isolation and a high probability of failure.

Whether he is describing being ejected from Paris-Roubaix, a terminal incident with a bird while out riding, painting the drama that unfolds in forgotten café as they wait for the Tour to pass, or explaining why he is standing stark naked on Belgian cobbles with a tyre in his hand in the morning mist, he always uncovers the true soul of cycling – why we do it, why we watch it, why we hate it, why we love it – stripped bare.

Publication: April 2017Primary Agent: David LuxtonSold: Spain (Los Libros do Lince), Germany (Covadonga)

THE BARCELONA LEGACY by Jonathan Wilson

NEW

Blink. UK & Commonwealth.

When Johan Cruyff left the Barcelona manager’s job in 1996, it was amid some acrimony. There had been two years without a league title and there were realistic fears that Barcelona, as they had done so often in the pre-Cruyff era, would lapse into crisis. Instead, in the four years that followed, Barcelona became a crucible in which modern football was formed – not just in terms of its dominant

tactical philosophy but in terms of the personalities and narratives that continue to shape today’s game.

This is a book in part about tactics, about how the theories that underpin the modern game were forged by Cruyff and his successors, but also about the people and personalities who gathered at the Camp Nou for what was effectively the greatest coaching seminar in history, about their friendships and rivalries and, in one case, an apocalyptic falling out that continues to shape the game.

M/s delivery: December 2017Primary Agent: David LuxtonRights sold: US (Nation Books), Poland (SQN), Japan (Toyokan), the Netherland (Ambo Anthos)All other rights: DLA

THE COFFEEHOUSE REVOLUTION by Jonathan Wilson

NEW

Blink. UK & Commonwealth.

Modern football was invented in the coffeehouses of Vienna and Budapest in the 1920s and 1930s by a group of people who by the 1940s would, for reasons of their race, be dead, interned or have fled into exile.

Budapest in the decade before the Second World War was home to an unprecedented generation of coaches, most of them Jewish, who revolutionised how football was thought about and how it was played. Those who survived the Holocaust and remained in or returned to Hungary after the war helped create the Aranycsapat, the golden squad, the great side of Ferenc Puskás, József Bozsik and Nandor Hidegkuti that won the Olympic title in 1952 and twice hammered England before a four-year unbeaten run came to an end at the worst possible time, in the World Cup final of 1954. But there were others who moved abroad, whether for straightforward professional reasons or because of anti-Semitism at home, who transformed the game in Italy, Argentina and Brazil. And there were others who didn’t make it, killed in the death camps or executed for their part in the anti-Fascist resistance.

This is a story that remains largely untold. Many of the key figures died tragically young and many of those who survived the war were reluctant to reveal how they had done so. But there’s more. More to be uncovered about them and their contemporaries, about the vibrant coffeehouse culture that for a glorious decade redefined football.

M/s delivery: December 2018Primary Agent: David LuxtonRights sold: US (Nation Books)All other rights: DLA

DOCTOR SOCRATES by Andrew Downie

Simon and Schuster, UK & Commonwealth

Socrates Brasileiro: a global footballing icon, and the captain of Brazil’s revered 1982 World Cup team. Astonishingly there has never been an English language biography of this much loved player. Until now. 

Andrew Downie, Brazilian football correspondent for Reuters, is writing the biography of the man who was a philosopher, a doctor, a revolutionary, and a footballer. More than just a book about football, this story will focus on those aspects of Socrates’ personality that made him stand out so clearly from his peers.

Publication: February 2017Primary Agent: David LuxtonAll rights: DLA Sold: Solar, France

JAN ULLRICH: THE BEST THERE NEVER WAS by Daniel Friebe

Pan Macmillan. UK & Commonwealth.

Jan Ullrich was one of Germany’s greatest sportsmen. He is the only German to win the Tour de France (1997) and took gold and silver medals at the 2000 Olympics. His success led to a bicycle boom in Germany. And yet few people outside the world of cycling have heard of him. This is his remarkable story, which will be published on the tenth anniversary of his retirement. Daniel Friebe, who has unique access to the men and women who know Ullrich best, will take us behind the scenes to show us how this young cyclist from East Germany dealt with his incredible rise to success, and then floundered in the

aftermath. This book is both a celebration of the sport and an exploration of the unbearable expectation, mental and physical fragilities and the legacies of a troubled childhood, that have dogged Ullrich’s career.

Daniel Friebe is one of Britain’s leading cycling journalists and writers. Previously the Features Editor of Procycling Magazine, widely regarded as the world’s most authoritative English-language cycling magazine, Daniel now is a full-time freelance journalist. Amongst his many books, he has collaborated with cycling superstar, Mark Cavendish, on both his best-selling memoirs. Friebe is also the co-author, with Pete Goding, of Mountain High: Europe’s 50 Greatest Cycling Climbs and Mountain Higher (Quercus).

Publication: Summer 2017Primary Agent: David LuxtonSold: Velo Press (USA), Thomas Rap (The Netherlands)All other rights: DLA

WATCHING THE WHEELS: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Damon Hill

UK NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WITH OVER 5000 COPIES SOLD IN ITS FIRST WEEK.

Macmillan, UK & Commonwealth.

2016 marks the twentieth anniversary of Damon Hill's coronation as Formula One World Champion. For the first time ever he tells the story of his journey through the last golden era of the sport when he took on the greats including Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher and emerged victorious as World Champion in 1996, stepping out of the shadow of his legendary father Graham Hill.

Away from the grid, Watching the Wheels: The Autobiography is an astonishingly candid account of what it was like to grow up as the son of one of the country's most famous racing drivers. It also tells the unflinching story of dealing with the grief and chaos that followed his father's tragically early death in an aircraft accident in 1975, when Damon was 15 years old.

Courageously honest, and hugely rewarding, Watching the Wheels is a return to the last golden era of F1 racing, whose image still burns ferociously for those who love the sport for what it reveals about human skill in the face or near certain death.

Publication: September 2016Primary agent: David LuxtonTranslation rights: DLASold: City Editions, France

RING OF FIRE: LIVERPOOL FC in the 2000s: THE PLAYERS’ STORIES by Simon Hughes

Transworld, World English Language

AMAZON SPORT BESTSELLER!

In Ring of Fire, Simon Hughes meets some of the most colourful characters to have played for Liverpool Football Club during the 2000s.

Through extensive interviews, Hughes delivers a rich portrait of one of the most iconic clubs in the world, and analyses the decade in which Liverpool FC recorded perhaps their most famous win of all time – the Champions League Final 2005, in Istanbul.

Publication: August 2016Primary agent: David LuxtonTranslation rights: Rebecca Winfield.Sold: Albatros Media (Czech Republic)

Also in the series:

Red Machine: Liverpool FC in the 80s: The Players’ StoriesMen in White Suits: Liverpool FC in the 90s: The Players’ Stories

FOREVER YOUNG: THE STORY OF ADRIAN DOHERTY, FOOTBALL’S LOST GENIUS by Oliver Kay

Quercus. UK & Commonwealth.

Adrian Doherty was not a typical footballer. For one thing, he was blessed with extraordinary talent. Those who played alongside and watched him in the Manchester United youth team in the early 1990s insist he was as good as Ryan Giggs - possibly even better. Giggs, who played on the opposite wing, says he is inclined to agree.

Doherty was also an eccentric - by football standards, at least. When his colleagues went to Old Trafford to watch the first team on Saturday afternoons, he preferred to take the

bus into Manchester to go busking. He wore second-hand clothes, worshipped Bob Dylan, read about theology and French existentialism and wrote songs and poems. One team-mate says "it was like having Bob Dylan in a No 7 shirt".

On his 17th birthday, Doherty was offered a five-year contract - unprecedented for a United youngster at that time - and told by Alex Ferguson that he was destined for stardom. But what followed over the next decade is a tale so mysterious, so shocking, so unusual, so amusing but ultimately so tragic, that you are left wondering how on earth it has been untold for so long.

Oliver Kay is Chief Football Correspondent for The Times, and was recently shortlisted for “Football Journalist of the Year 2016” at the Sports Journalism Awards. Forever Young is his debut title.

Publication: June 2016Primary agent: David LuxtonRights sold: Manteau / Voetbal International (Flemish / Dutch rights)All other rights: DLA

ARSENE WENGER: THE INSIDE STORY OF ARSENAL UNDER WENGER by John Cross

Simon and Schuster, UK & Commonwealth

In this fascinating account of Arsene Wenger's reign as manager of Arsenal and the methods he has used to keep the club at the top, John Cross has spoken to everyone from board members to players and backroom staff to build the most complete portrait of the man and his management style, and the club he has inspired for almost 20 years.

When Wenger arrived at Arsenal in 1996, he was little known to fans at the club and many doubted he could bring back the glory days of George Graham. But soon he

was transforming the way the team played. At the same time, he introduced new ideas on diet, fitness and professionalism, which many players believe extended their careers. Having won numerous trophies, and led the Invincibles to an unbeaten league season in 2003-04, Wenger then had to help the club through the next stage of their development when they moved from Highbury to the Emirates. Despite the financial constraints he faced, he still managed to keep the club playing in the Champions League year after year while remaining true to his philosophy of how the game should be played.

Publication September 2015Primary agent David LuxtonSold: France (Talent Sport), Poland (SQN), Czech Republic (Mlada Fronta), Japan (Toyokan), Korea (Garam Publishing), Bulgaria (Janua ’98)

CONTACT DETAILS:

For more information on these books or on the rest of our extensive foreign rights catalogue, please contact:

Nick Walters: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkeynick@davidluxtonassociates.co.uk

Rebecca Winfield: Chinese language rights (simplified and complex), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, South America inc Brazil, USA & Canadarebecca@rebeccawinfield.com

DLA FOREIGN RIGHTS SUB-AGENTS:

For any foreign rights queries relating to these territories, please contact David Luxton Associates in the first instance.

JAPANJapan Uni AgencyTokyo, Japanhttp://www.japanuni.co.jp/index.html

KOREAEric Yang Agency Seoul, Koreahttp://www.ericyangagency.co.kr/

BRAZIL & PORTUGALSeibel Publishing Serviceshttp://seibelpublishingservices.com/

POLANDBook/Lab Literary AgencyWarsaw, Polandhttp://www.literatura.com.pl/

RUSSIAThe van Lear AgencyMoscow, Russiahttps://www.facebook.com/TheVanLearAgency/

CHINA (simplified / complex) Artemis AgencyTaipei City, Taiwanhttps://www.facebook.com/artemisagency

TURKEYNurcihan Kesim Literary AgencyIstanbul, Turkeyhttp://www.nkliteraryagency.com/