Rashford, Holding and Balding shortlisted for Sports Book Awards

Titles by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford, former cricketer Michael Holding and sports presenter Clare Balding have made the shortlists for the 2022 Sports Book Awards, held in association with the Sunday Times.

Now in their 20th year, the annual awards highlight the most outstanding sports books of the previous calendar year.

Rashford’s children’s book, You Are a Champion, co-written with Carl Anka (Macmillan Children’s Books), has been shortlisted for the Children’s Sports Book of the Year, in association with the National Literacy Trust. The book was W H Smith’s Book of the Year for 2021, and is shortlisted for the Children’s Non-fiction category at the British Book Awards this year. 

Holding won the £30,000 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award in 2021 for Why We Kneel, How We Rise (Simon & Schuster). The author, who is shortlisted in both the Best Sports Writing Book of the Year and Best Cricket Book categories, commented: “A huge thank you to the Sports Books Awards for nominating Why We Kneel, How We Rise for the Best Sports Writing Book of the Year and for Best Cricket Book. We can only hope my book will continue to open eyes and hearts and educate and inspire people about racism in our society.” 

Tennis champion Billie Jean King’s autobiography All In (Viking) is a finalist for the International Autobiography category, while Stronger by journalist Poorna Bell (Bluebird) is listed for the Sports Performance Book of the Year award. 

Balding, a BBC sports presenter and former judge of the Sports Book Awards, is nominated for the Children’s Sports Book of the Year with Fall Off, Get Back On, Keep Going (Wren & Rook). She said: “I’m delighted that Fall Off has been nominated among so many great titles for young readers. I think we can learn so much from sport and from those who play sport, particularly about resilience and recovery from mistakes. For me, the really interesting decisions are made off the field of play and that’s what I wanted to share with readers.”

A public vote is now open to find the winners in the Autobiography of the Year, International Autobiography of the Year, Sports Performance Book of the Year and Sports Entertainment Book of the Year.

A ceremony will take place at the Kia Oval, London, on 26th May, presented by the awards host and ITV’s chief sport presenter Mark Pougatch. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the awards, a Best Sports Book of the 21st Century prize will be presented to a previous winner.

“Twenty years of the Sports Book Awards sees a tremendous panorama of brilliant and colourful writing," the awards’ chairman David Willis said. "Sports writing now attracts some of the finest talent in the English language and we are proud to be associated with such a successful and exhilarating genre.”

The shortlists in full:

The Sunday Times Autobiography of the Year 
Francis Benali: The Autobiography, Francis Benali (Bloomsbury Sport)
Belonging: The Autobiography, Alun Wyn Jones (Macmillan)
Hooked: Addiction and the Long Road to Recovery, Paul Merson (Headline)
Love of the Game, Ricky Hill with Adrian Durham (Pitch Publishing)
Resilience, Elise Christie, Mark Eglinton (Reach Sport)
Too Many Reasons to Live, Rob Burrow (Macmillan)
Troy Deeney: Redemption, Troy Deeney (Cassell)

Children’s Sports Book of the Year, in association with the National Literacy Trust
You Are a Champion, Marcus Rashford and Carl Anka (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Fall Off, Get Back On, Keep Going, Clare Balding, illustrated by Jessica Holm (Wren & Rook)
How to Be a Footballer and Other Sports Jobs, Rachel Yankey, Illustrated by Sol Linero (Nosy Crow)
Jaz Santos vs the World, Priscilla Mante (Puffin)
Run Like a Girl, Danielle Brown (Button Books)
Striking Out, Ian Wright, Musa Okwonga & illustrated by Benjamin Wachenje (Scholastic)
I Love My Bike, Simon Mole, illustrated by Sam Usher (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books)
Play Like Your Football Heroes: Pro tips for becoming a top player, Seth Burkett and Matt Oldfield, illustrated by Tom Jennings (Walker Books)

The Heartaches’ Cricket Book of the Year
Beyond the Boundaries, Scyld Berry (Fairfield Books)
It’s Always Summer Somewhere, Felix White (Cassell)
Never Surrender, Mark Peel (Pitch Publishing)
Late Cuts: Musings on Cricket, Vic Marks (Allen & Unwin)
Who Only Cricket Know, David Woodhouse (Fairfield Books)
Why We Kneel, How We Rise, Michael Holding (Simon & Schuster UK)

Cycling Book of the Year
Desire, Discrimination, Determination - Black Champions in Cycling, Dr Marlon Moncrieffe (Rapha)
God is Dead: The Rise and Fall of Frank Vandenbroucke, Cycling’s Great Wasted Talent, Andy McGrath (Bantam Press)
Revolutions, Hannah Ross (W&N)
The Art of Cycling, James Hibbard (Quercus)
Vuelta Skelter, Tim Moore (Jonathan Cape)
War on Wheels: Inside Keirin and Japan’s Cycling Subculture, Justin McCurry (Pursuit Books)

Illustrated Book of the Year
England Rugby – 150 Years, The RFU, Phil McGowan and Richard Steele (Vision Sports Publishing)
Extreme Like a Girl, Carolina Amell (Prestel)
Liverpool Football Programmes: The Definitive Collector’s Guide, Andy Marsden (LFCProgMan)
Seve – His Life Through the Lens, David Cannon and Rob Green (Vision Sports Publishing)
This Sporting Life – Gerry Cranham Photographer, Mark Leech and Doug Cheeseman (Offside Press)
Toon In!, Michael Payne (Vision Sports Publishing)
Why Everything You Know About Martial Arts Is Wrong*, Andrew G Stewart (Self-published)
The People’s Wimbledon, Richard Jones (Pitch Publishing)

Fitzdares International Autobiography of the Year
All In: The Autobiography of Billie Jean King, Billie Jean King (Viking)
Always Believe, Olivier Giroud with Dominique Rouch (Pitch Publishing)
I Love This Game, Patrice Evra (Simon & Schuster UK)
Leap of Faith, Frankie Dettori (HarperCollins)
One: My Autobiography, Peter Schmeichel (Hodder & Stoughton)
Rise: The Brand New Autobiography, Siya Kolisi (HarperCollins)

Arbuthnot Latham Rugby Book of the Year, in association with The Rugby Union Writers’ Club
The Buck Props Here!, Anthony Buchanan with Geraint Thomas (Y Lolfa)
Fight or Flight, Keith Earls with Tommy Conlon (Reach Sport)
Centre Stage, Jamie Roberts and Ross Harries (Hodder & Stoughton)
Crossing the Line, Willie Anderson with Brendan Fanning (Reach Sport)
The Flying Prince, Hugh Godwin (Hodder & Stoughton)
This is Your Everest, Tom English and Peter Burns (Polaris Publishing)

Sports Entertainment Book of the Year
How Not to be a Cricketer, Phil Tufnell (Simon & Schuster UK)
Eighty at Eighty, Sir Geoff Hurst with Norman Giller (Pitch Publishing)
Flats and Durders Offload, David Flatman and Mark Durden-Smith (Simon & Schuster UK)
Not for Me, Clive, Clive Tyldesley (Headline)
Ten to Win... And the Last Man In, Henry Blofeld (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Champ & The Chump, James McNicholas (Headline)

iPRO Hydrate Sports Performance Book of the Year
The Gladiator Mindset, Adam Peaty (Quercus)
Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Face, Tony Bellew (Seven Dials)
High Performance, Jake Humphrey and Prof Damian Hughes (Random House Business)
Move!: The New Science of Body Over Mind, Caroline Williams (Profile Books)
Stronger, Poorna Bell (Bluebird)
Leadership, Eddie Jones (Macmillan)
All to Play For, Matt Rogan and Kerry Potter (Ebury Press)

Pinsent Masons Sports Writing Award
Football, She Wrote, various (Floodlit Dreams)
Why We Kneel, How We Rise, Michael Holding (Simon & Schuster UK)
Don Revie: The Biography, Christopher Evans (Bloomsbury Sport)
Game On, Sue Anstiss (Unbound)
The Boy, Richard Williams (Simon & Schuster UK)
The Third Pole, Mark Synnott (Headline)
Whose Game Is It Anyway?, Michael Calvin (Pitch Publishing)

Football Book of the Year, in association with the Football Writers’ Association
Barça – The inside story of the world’s greatest football club, Simon Kuper (Short Books)
The Immortals, Arrigo Sacchi (BackPage Press)
Maradona: The Boy. The Rebel. The God. Guillem Balagué (W&N)
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Inside Story of the Legendary 1970 World Cup, Andrew Downie
(Arena Sport)
FA Cup 150, Phil Annets (FACupFactfile, self-published)
The Miracle 04 – The Football Team That Shocked the world, Vasilis Sambrakos (Pitch Publishing)
The Dream Factory, Ryan Baldi (Polaris Publishing Limited)