A Gunners' Must

Autobiographies are the bad first dates of the literary world.

You’re stuck in your chair listening to her talk about herself, and talk about herself, and talk about herself, and the best you can hope for is that the restaurant she picked is as good as she made it sound.

So it follows that sports autobiographies are the bad one night stands of the autobiography world.

Every once in a while, though, you have that one night stand where you wish you’d asked for her phone number, or that you’d stayed to make her breakfast.

Vieira: My Autobiography is a bit like that.

You pick it up, blow through it, and you wish you could go back and ask him to tell you more.

Vieira’s story reads like an oral history, which is probably exactly what it is: his story rambled out to a ghostwriter in a series of conversations. But that’s okay. There is no pretense to literary talent, no silly attempts to elevate the prose above conversations about his impressive career in football, which is dominated by his years at Arsenal, and absolutely no attempt to make Vieira more than he is.

So what is Patrick Vieira?

He is a Senegalese born Frenchman, who plays defensive midfield for club and country; he has won a World Cup, a Euro Cup, a Scuddetto, multiple Premiership titles, and the FA Cup; he has captained Arsenal and Les Bleus; and he is a seemingly honest man who either has too much probity or too much naivety to keep his mouth shut when it comes to those he’s played with and against.

And therein lies the great charm of Vieira’s book. Much like the autobiography of Roy Keane, a competitor, incidentally, Vieira admires and respects, Vieira: My Autobiography is filled with opinions about all the great players Vieira has come in contact with. He is as quick to call Ruud van Nistelrooy a “son of a bitch” as he is to call Tony Adams “a towering personality.”

Nor does he pause when he wants to clear up his side of a story, particularly when it comes to his infamous battles with Manchester United, both on the pitch or in the tunnel.*Yet whether he is providing his side of a story or attacking someone personally, Vieira conveys a real sense of integrity, making it very difficult to disbelieve his perspective.

Vieira: My Autobiography is a must for Arsenal fans, but it is worth a read if you are a neutral, and adversary or just interested in football. Vieira gives us a hint of what footballers go through on and off the pitch, and he entertains along the way.

And that works just fine for me.