Guest Review: There's Only Two David Beckhams by John O'Farrell

Here's another in my series of reviews on sports/history books. A novel about football today...

Re-live the glory and the heartache of England's greatest ever game - and THAT World Cup Final back in 2022.

Well now it’s 2022 and the discussion is finally over, England have eleven players as good as any of them. The unbeatable national team have reached the final of the Qatar World Cup. But one journalist is convinced there is a scandalous secret behind England’s incredible form. His lifetime’s dream is to see the Three Lions win the World Cup. But if he pursues and exposes the shocking truth, his beloved England could be sent home in disgrace. 

Suddenly this is much more than England vs Germany; it’s Love vs Duty, it’s Truth vs Happiness. 
The pressure of the penalty shoot-out is nothing compared to this.

There’s Only Two David Beckhams is John O’Farrell’s love-letter to football; part-detective story, part-sports memoir, part-satire on the whole corrupt FIFA circus; it just made the final for the funniest football fiction ever written...

Review: This is a fictional and humorous account of the England football team's progress in qualifying for and reaching the final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar (I said it was a work of fiction). It is told from the standpoint of a sports journalist named Alfie covering the events, and describes his journey of discovery as well as the impact of the team's performance on his professional and personal lives.

As well as publishing a number of books and writing newspaper columns, the author John O'Farrell has written previously for the TV comedy programmes "Spitting Image" and "Have I Got News For You". This book displays the same incisive, satirical humour of those programmes, and I was in stitches constantly whilst reading it. The worlds of professional football, journalism and politics are all targeted, as the book leads to the thrilling climax of the World Cup Final, and the moral dilemma faced by Alfie. I don't believe a single footballing cliché has been omitted from the book. All in all, I was over the moon after reading this book and I give it my full vote of confidence.

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US