Nedum Onuoha

Nedum Onuoha was not a typical footballer. Determined to continue his education despite the lure of a career under the spotlights. Fiercely intelligent on and off the pitch, Onuoha developed into a talented defender and played his part in Manchester 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 club four months earlier.

In this characteristically forthright book, Onuoha reveals what goes on behind the scenes at top-tier football clubs. Stuffed with insights into household names within the world of football from former England Manager Sven-Göran Eriksson to Roberto Mancini. 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 identity: as a footballer, as a black man in England and as an outsider in the US during the 2020 Black Lives Matter Movement and presidential election. What is it like to receive horrific racist abuse while doing your job? And how was football utterly failed the balls 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.

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