By Rafe W.
Visit to our school from author Dan Freedman
This Wednesday, an author named Dan Freedman came into our school to give a talk about some of his books, including one of his newest release ’50 Ways into Football’. This is a new book by him explaining all the unique ways that someone could become involved in the football industry, even if you are not the best football player or if you do not particularly enjoy actually playing the game.
He started of the talk by saying that when he was younger, he had always wanted to be a football player, but he was never good enough to play in the top clubs. So instead he became interested in being a football journalist. He ended up getting the job with the England team and so went to all of their games, watched them and then the next day his review on how the game went would get published in the newspaper. He met multiple famous players in his time being a football journalist including Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard. However, after seven years of being a football journalist he decided to write a series of football novels called the ‘Jamie Johnson’ series.
He also told us about a book he had written called ‘Unstoppable.’ It is a book about a pair of twins who are both excellent in one sport – football and tennis. However, their parents decide only one of them can continue to play. The two children try to sabotage each other so that they do not play as well, meaning that they will be picked to continue their sport. In the book when one is picked, the other becomes moody and will not listen to anyone anymore and he ends up putting his own life in danger due to this.
At the end of the talk we had a chance to ask him any questions we had about any of his books or his experience being a football journalist. He told us lots of interesting facts including who and what inspired his ‘Jamie Johnson’ series and how he kept going to publishers even after being rejected a number of times.
After the talk was finished, we were allowed to purchase one or more of his books at a discounted price and get them signed by him as well.
Overall, I thought that the talk was very entertaining and educational as it gave us an insight into the many jobs available in the football industry. He also told us how to keep motivated when we get rejected and that we should always go for our goals even if we face setbacks.