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Kicking Back
“This is a great account of the life and career of a man I respect immensely. A fascinating read.” – Ian Wright
“A searingly honest account of a fascinating football story. Nedum tells it like he played, with nothing left out.” – Guy Mowbray, Match of the Day
“A frank, thought-provoking and compelling insight into one of football’s most articulate voices.” – Rory Smith, New York Times chief soccer correspondent
***
‘My identity is built on conflicts, and I’m proud of who I am … I can walk through the rest of my life with something to say.’
Nedum Onuoha was not a typical footballer. A young black Mancunian picked by the Manchester City Academy aged ten, he was determined to continue his education despite the lure of a career under the floodlights. Fiercely intelligent on and off the pitch, Onuoha developed into a talented defender and played his part in City’s meteoric rise. He was at the Etihad Stadium when they won their first Premier League title – as an opposition player for QPR, having left the Blues just four months earlier.
In this characteristically forthright book, Onuoha reveals what goes on behind the scenes at top-tier clubs. Stuffed with insights into household names like Stuart Pearce, Sven-Göran Eriksson, Roberto Mancini and Harry Redknapp, this is football and its most famous figures as you’ve never seen them before.
Kicking Back is also the story of one man’s search for as a footballer, as a black man in England and as an outsider in the US during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. What is it like to receive horrific racist abuse while doing your job? And how has football utterly failed the black community? Onuoha provides a damning assessment of the sport’s authorities, finally claiming his voice as he dives deep into a life spent on the pitch.
“A searingly honest account of a fascinating football story. Nedum tells it like he played, with nothing left out.” – Guy Mowbray, Match of the Day
“A frank, thought-provoking and compelling insight into one of football’s most articulate voices.” – Rory Smith, New York Times chief soccer correspondent
***
‘My identity is built on conflicts, and I’m proud of who I am … I can walk through the rest of my life with something to say.’
Nedum Onuoha was not a typical footballer. A young black Mancunian picked by the Manchester City Academy aged ten, he was determined to continue his education despite the lure of a career under the floodlights. Fiercely intelligent on and off the pitch, Onuoha developed into a talented defender and played his part in City’s meteoric rise. He was at the Etihad Stadium when they won their first Premier League title – as an opposition player for QPR, having left the Blues just four months earlier.
In this characteristically forthright book, Onuoha reveals what goes on behind the scenes at top-tier clubs. Stuffed with insights into household names like Stuart Pearce, Sven-Göran Eriksson, Roberto Mancini and Harry Redknapp, this is football and its most famous figures as you’ve never seen them before.
Kicking Back is also the story of one man’s search for as a footballer, as a black man in England and as an outsider in the US during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. What is it like to receive horrific racist abuse while doing your job? And how has football utterly failed the black community? Onuoha provides a damning assessment of the sport’s authorities, finally claiming his voice as he dives deep into a life spent on the pitch.
355 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 17, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 9, 2025
Great book! Love Nedum!
June 23, 2023
Nedum Onuoha is a footballer I know more through his recent stint on the Guardian’s Football Weekly pod rather than from his playing career, which largely passed me by after that goal against Chelsea. I’d never even pegged he was playing for QPR on that famous day until he mentioned it on the pod. I was very much influenced by the FW episode in which they interviewed Onuoha as the kicking back of the title was not of the relaxing kind, but of speaking some much needed truths about what it is like at football club.
Onuhoa demythologises the role of the football manager for large parts of the book as the media presences of the likes of Roberto Mancini and Harry Redknapp are something for the cameras in his experience with the latter tending to talk out either side of his mouth depending who he might be talking to. Even managers seemingly doing the right things on the training pitch and attempting to be innovative can fail based on their results as Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Iain Holloway discover at their time at QPR.
There’s a chapter taking out Joey Barton, which is illuminating and those of us who are fans of Scottish sides are well aware of what he thinks of himself based on how he thought he would run Scottish football and instead found himself out on his arse within six months.
The book isn’t just about such revelations as Onuoha details the agony of never really knowing why managers have made the decisions they have about him balanced against his pride to play for City and having witnessed first-hand what the influx of money did and meant for the club. Onuoha’s intelligence shines through within the book and he always tries to consider both sides of things, which is possibly easier when reflecting on past events.
Even in his MLS days there are stories aplenty told with verve such as his run in with Ibra and the money he paid to staff members from his club, Real Salt Lake, after their billionaire owner had laid them off during Covid. The ending with Onuoha retiring on his own terms after being able to give his young family a US adventure left me with a huge smile on face. He appears as somebody who has always tried to go about things the right way, but this at times meant holding his tongue and abiding by the unwritten rules of the dressing room or of society in general.
This is a cut above the usual football autobiography as Onuoha gives us the skinny on how things have worked at clubs for him and introduces us to the reality of certain footballing characters for good or for bad. Ultimately it is his story and even though it’s already been told, you are rooting for him to get what he wants as a hard-working, intelligent man. He’s not totally exposing the game, but relating to it on a human level in line with how he expects the world should work, which unfortunately is rarely the case anymore.
Onuhoa demythologises the role of the football manager for large parts of the book as the media presences of the likes of Roberto Mancini and Harry Redknapp are something for the cameras in his experience with the latter tending to talk out either side of his mouth depending who he might be talking to. Even managers seemingly doing the right things on the training pitch and attempting to be innovative can fail based on their results as Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Iain Holloway discover at their time at QPR.
There’s a chapter taking out Joey Barton, which is illuminating and those of us who are fans of Scottish sides are well aware of what he thinks of himself based on how he thought he would run Scottish football and instead found himself out on his arse within six months.
The book isn’t just about such revelations as Onuoha details the agony of never really knowing why managers have made the decisions they have about him balanced against his pride to play for City and having witnessed first-hand what the influx of money did and meant for the club. Onuoha’s intelligence shines through within the book and he always tries to consider both sides of things, which is possibly easier when reflecting on past events.
Even in his MLS days there are stories aplenty told with verve such as his run in with Ibra and the money he paid to staff members from his club, Real Salt Lake, after their billionaire owner had laid them off during Covid. The ending with Onuoha retiring on his own terms after being able to give his young family a US adventure left me with a huge smile on face. He appears as somebody who has always tried to go about things the right way, but this at times meant holding his tongue and abiding by the unwritten rules of the dressing room or of society in general.
This is a cut above the usual football autobiography as Onuoha gives us the skinny on how things have worked at clubs for him and introduces us to the reality of certain footballing characters for good or for bad. Ultimately it is his story and even though it’s already been told, you are rooting for him to get what he wants as a hard-working, intelligent man. He’s not totally exposing the game, but relating to it on a human level in line with how he expects the world should work, which unfortunately is rarely the case anymore.
October 4, 2022
I picked this up as I have enjoyed Nedum's insights on the guardian football weekly podcast. I thought it was a well written and interesting book and I really liked the sections on certain managers like Redknapp, Mancini and Holloway who all maybe aren't as they seem from the media for different reasons! I also thought the author's thoughts on race and being a black man and footballer in the UK and the US were really good and insightful.
There were a few bits that got a tiny bit procedural (was more interested in the hot takes personally than a this happened then this happened type account) but for a footballer type memoir this was a class above the usual stuff you get churned out.
There were a few bits that got a tiny bit procedural (was more interested in the hot takes personally than a this happened then this happened type account) but for a footballer type memoir this was a class above the usual stuff you get churned out.
November 17, 2024
Good read, much more mature than your average footballer autobiography. Onuoha’s an intelligent guy and has had an very interesting career, but doesn’t seem absolutely enraptured by football - he played it but was also intelligent to know that life exists without it, it’s like Gary Lineker’s approach to retirement.
Interesting behind the scenes stories, most interesteringly his relationships with managers - he doesn’t get on with many of them.
A lot of the book is about racism, and instances in his life, which are sad but important to who he is today.
Interesting behind the scenes stories, most interesteringly his relationships with managers - he doesn’t get on with many of them.
A lot of the book is about racism, and instances in his life, which are sad but important to who he is today.
July 21, 2022
Solid read from an unusually eloquent footballer
I bought this book having listened to Nedum Onuoha on the Guardian football podcast. I like football but not the ‘proper football men’ who talk about being leaders aka hard men. Nedum always comes across more measured and intelligent and the book did not disappoint. Would have been five stars but for the fact that it sometimes reads like a set of grievances but overall still recommended.
I bought this book having listened to Nedum Onuoha on the Guardian football podcast. I like football but not the ‘proper football men’ who talk about being leaders aka hard men. Nedum always comes across more measured and intelligent and the book did not disappoint. Would have been five stars but for the fact that it sometimes reads like a set of grievances but overall still recommended.
August 10, 2023
You'll never look at Harry Redknapp or Roberto Mancini the same way again. Building on his successful podcast, Nedum's memoir, written with Rory Smith, is a great account of the modern-day pro, with stops in Salt Lake City, Sunderland and West London. A post-playing career in punditry is just beginning and he's a real credit to his late mum.
May 15, 2024
Interesting read, he didn't have the most glorious career but I think that made it all the more interesting. There was some surprising revelations about managers he worked under, particularly Mancini and Redknapp. It was also interesting to hear his perspective on racism he encountered and the Black Lives Matter movement.
March 3, 2024
Interesting read from a smart guy with a refreshing way of looking at things
August 1, 2024
Onuoha broke through during the exact same period I fell in love with city as a kid so I was always going to like this.
He’s clearly more intelligent and interesting than 99% of other footballers
He’s clearly more intelligent and interesting than 99% of other footballers
September 3, 2024
5 star book for a 5 star person. Nedum has been one of my favorite personalities in football over the last half decade for his work off the pitch. He brings a very different perspective from the usual cast of former professional athletes while being a pundit , and his book was no different. A fantastic insight to the highs and lows of a career all while in tandem with their boyhood club reaching heights no one saw coming at the time.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews