What makes the book so compelling and readable is the window it opens on to the rugby and the imperatives, still relevant today, behind great teams and institutions...Fascinating and affecting

Bracing and fascinating in equal measure

It really sets for a great benchmark for sports autobiographies, given that it is so honest

Captures all the jagged edges that make Sexton one of Irish sport's most compelling characters

Engrossing

If you crave an insight into the life of a professional rugby player ... Becoming a Lion is a must

Intensely revealing

An intensely readable socioeconomic study of English football in the age of globalisation

A book that informs and inspires, a truly great piece of writing

The best pub talker of a book for years

Goldblatt has a gift for exploring the way the game holds a mirror up to our lives ... His deconstruction of the modern game could hardly be bettered

[A] bold analysis of Britain's economic and social change refracted through football

A salient overview of the past quarter-century

The deserving winner of this year's William Hill Sports Book of the Year award

This is a breakthrough book by one of the leading young lights of Australian writing

Despite it being an almost impossible subject to write about, Krien has produced a brilliant, disarming, thought-provoking book

A thought-provoking book that every aspiring male footballer should be made to read…as part of their apprenticeship

A worthy, if unexpected, winner

A depressing but essential read

an intelligent and unsettling exploration of how sport’s macho culture and exclusion of women enable abuse