The King - The Autobiography

by Denis Law

The autobiography of soccer star Denis Law who was the King of Manchester United Football Club in the 1960s and won the European Footballer of the Year Award in 1964.

Genres: Sports, Biography, Football

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2003

About the author

Denis Law was a Scottish footballer who played as a forward. His career as a football player began at Second Division Huddersfield Town in 1956. After four years at Huddersfield, he was signed by Manchester City for an estimated transfer fee of £55,000, which set a new British record. Law spent one year there before Torino bought him for £110,000, this time setting a new record fee for a transfer involving a British player. Although he played well in Italy, he found it difficult to settle there and signed for Manchester United in 1962, setting another British record transfer fee of £115,000.
Law spent 11 years at Manchester United, where he scored 237 goals in 404 appearances. His goals tally places him third in the club's history, behind Wayne Rooney and Bobby Charlton. He was nicknamed The King and The Lawman by supporters, and Denis the Menace by opposing supporters. Law was also known as part of the "United Trinity", along with Charlton and George Best. He is the only Scottish player to have won the Ballon d'Or award, doing so in 1964, and helped his club win the First Division in 1965 and 1967, as well as the FA Cup in 1963 and two Charity Shields. He missed their European Cup final triumph in 1968 through injury.
Law left Manchester United in 1973 to return to Manchester City for a season, and represented Scotland at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. He played only two competitive games in the 1974–75 season, retiring before the start of the League programme proper. Law played for Scotland a total of 55 times and jointly holds the Scottish international record goal tally with 30 goals. Law holds a Manchester United record for scoring 46 competitive goals in a single season.

Reviews

[Jonathan Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had this book in my 'to-read' pile for a few years and decided to read it after Denis Law's sad passing in early 2025.

The autobiography was released more than 20 years ago, in 2003, and followed the very sterile formula of footballer life stories of the period.

There is far too much discussion of actual matches and seasons, and listing of results and how games went and not enough exposition on key events and stories.

Where Law does go into detail I really enjoyed it (growing up in Aberdeen, his time at Torino, relationships with Bob Shankly and Matt Busby, playing for Scotland, and returning to Man City after betrayal by Tommy Docherty, and playing with legends like Di Stefano and Puskas for World XIs).

The way the book finishes with chapters on his opinions on players and managers of the teams of the time the book was written is also typical of releases of the period and really feels like padding to meet a word count.

Overall, it was an average autobiography that could have been a lot more interesting but still well worth reading for fans of Scotland, Manchester United and Manchester City. Probably not so much if you're not a fan of those teams.

[Gail Marchant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A legend at old Trafford
Great read

[Darren Keighley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true legend, except for his back heel.