My Story

Product Information

As previously stated, Steven Gerrard released this book at the age of 26, which for footballers is only really middle age. Most professional footballers don't retire until their early thirties, and indeed the likes of Ryan Giggs (who is an iconic footballer in his own right, and still playing first team football for Manchester United at the age of 35) have shown that it is possible to go on longer than that at the highest level. Personally I felt that at the time of releasing this book Steven Gerrard had at least another five or six years left at the very top level of club football. As such, it was something of a disappoint that he released this book only two thirds of the way through what is, up to now, a glittering career. You can't help but feel at the end of this book (especially if you've read it recently) that a second book is likely at some point down the line. It's a fine insight into one of the most profilic and inspirational footballers in England over the last 20 years. Gerrard had to go through so much, his parents got divorced in 2002. He didn't score or play well for a little while probably because he was saddened by his parents decision. There was a time where Gerrard had got dropped because he got injured so often but he still never gave up and performed everytime he got the chance.

Playing against West Ham in December, he took a shot at goal and felt a pain in his hamstring: four weeks out. The following week, Liverpool went to Tottenham without him and won 5-0. It was their best performance in years. Berawal dari impian, disiplin dan semangat untuk maju, Gerrard membawa pulang beberapa gelar juara bagi Liverpool. Salah satu yang paling berkesan, tentu saja, adalah "keajaiban Istabul". Di satu sisi, heroiknya tim besutan Rafa Benitez menggulung AC Milan memberikan gelar eropa pertama bagi Gerrard. Di sisi koin kegagalan ini sangat menyakitkan bagi seorang Andrea Pirlo. Seolah takdir, beberapa tahun berikut, di tahun 2007. Pirlo berhasil membalas kepedihan tersebut di final Liga Champions Athena. Narrated in the brutally honest tone of Liverpool's iconic captain, the book doesn't shy away from landing a few strong punches. Clearly, Gerrard couldn't care less about political correctness (especially at this stage in life). A person I found interesting in this book was Steven Gerrard. His desire and determination has great an made him to become one of the all time England greats, and a captain at Liverpool football club. He is a leader and has a winning mentality like no other person on the planet.It was ironic that Benítez took ceaseless criticism for "playing Gerrard out of position." In truth, he was the first coach to understand that, for Gerrard, "out of position" meant central midfield. He would never be a general, an orchestrator, because those players need a wider emotional range. They have to know when to be aggressive and when to be crafty, when to keep it simple and when to try something outrageous, when to speed it up and when to slow it down. Technically and physically, Gerrard was Liverpool's best player by far; he could do things with the ball nobody else could. But his barometer was permanently set to hurricane. There are a couple of inexplicable errors. For example, in the section on the World Cup Group, Costa Rica is described as a “tiny island.” Of course, it’s not an island at all. It’s located on the Central American isthmus, between Nicaragua and Panama, as one look at Google Maps could have told the author. That eccentric confidence usually becomes apparent early. When Souness was 17, he went to Spurs manager Bill Nicholson and demanded to know why he wasn't yet a first-team regular. Souness believed he was already the best midfielder at the club. As such seasoned readers may well be put off by the style of this book. It is not particularly welcoming, and you almost need to skim the words rather than trying to take them all in as individual sentences. Certainly if you try to read the book intricately it will become a struggle, because in all honesty it just doesn't flow that well from sentence to sentence. Then again this is something that should be expected and persevered with. If you want a literary masterpiece, don't buy the autobiography of a professional footballer. Makélélé was the guy who gets the ball and gives it to someone with more ability. Gerrard was the guy with more ability. He wasn't Liverpool's Makélélé; he was their Zidane.

Ditulis bersama Donald McRae, Stevie menuangkan isi hatinya yang terdalam di "Kisah Saya". Bertahun-tahun mendapati pasang surut tim kebanggaannya, pemilik nomor 8 ini tentu mengenal lebih baik isi perut tim (Liverpool dan timnas Inggris) ketimbang pundit maupun analis di mana pun. Membaca buku ini di satu sisi menghadirkan sisi emosional, sekaligus rasa penasaran akan apa yang terjadi di balik layar skuad bersimbol burung Liver merah itu.Bagian yang seru lagi, menurut saya adalah cerita pertandingan-pertandingannya. Jika saya punya kesan sendiri terhadap pertandingan itu, saya bisa membacanya dari sudut pandang Stevie. Ini juga bagian yang harus dibaca langsung di bukunya. Namun ada satu hal yang ia tak mau lakukan demi klub--hak citra. Memang sudah kewajibannya tampil di iklan yang menjadi sponsor LFC, namun kalau menyangkut soal hak citra, ia tak akan mengambilnya. Baginya, sekalinya kau terikat pada LFC, jiwa ragamulah untuknya, tanpa pamrih. Itu sudah jadi kewajibanmu, dan bonus memang menarik, tapi ia tak mau akhirnya dikenal sebagai bintang iklan. Namun, Stevie memberi pengecualian pada Messi dan Christiano Ronaldo. But this is not the approach that Gerrard takes. As well as covering the most well known professional moments of his career, he also covers personal issues that he quite frankly didn't need to cover at all. If he hadn't, I don't think the reader would have known any different. This approach is actually one that adds depth to the book. As he goes through he talks about the impact of his family, his upbringing, his attitude and his outlook on a personal level, bringing in deeply personal issues such as his parents breaking up as he does so. Autobiographies are usually about gleaming information about your chosen celebrity, but as I read this book I actually felt connected to Gerrard, which meant that even when reading about topics that I know about so well, I felt like I was looking at them from a completely new perspective. This is one of the strengths of the book and a credit to the way that Gerrard has chosen to approach this. In revealing more personal information that he strictly had to he makes the book a lot deeper, and a much more satisfying read. At the same time, I never felt that the information revealed wasn't relevant, which shows good balance and judgment in terms of the content that is included. You could say he is a glass-half-empty kind of guy. In the book, he sheds tears on at least 10 separate occasions. The narrative is strewn with phrases about his mental meltdowns: "My head was gone,""my head was a mess,""my head was about to explode,""my head was battered,""it was doing my head in." I understand why Gerrard wants to keep the focus on the things happening on the pitch, but all the long summaries and repetition really could've been cut in half for a better reading experience.