Published: 30 September 2011
ISBN: 9781446468784
Imprint: Vintage Digital
Format: EBook
Pages: 352

Categories:

Biography

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Trautmann's Journey

From Hitler Youth to FA Cup Legend

Catrine Clay

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An astounding story of war and football - the first biography of Manchester City goalkeeper and former Hitler Youth star Bert Trautmann

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR

Bert Trautmann is a football legend. He is famed as the Manchester City goalkeeper who broke his neck in the 1956 FA Cup final and played on. But his early life was no less extraordinary. He grew up in Nazi Germany, where first he was indoctrinated by the Hitler Youth, before fighting in World War Two in France and on the Eastern Front.

In 1945 he was captured and sent to a British POW camp where, for the first time, he understood that there could be a better way of life. He embraced England as his new home and before long became an English football hero.

'Brilliant' Observer

'A remarkable story, well worth reading' The Times

'A gripping story of an unlikely redemption through football' Sunday Times

'This poignant book is a tribute to the depth of both Clay's research and her compassion' Independent

Published: 30 September 2011
ISBN: 9781446468784
Imprint: Vintage Digital
Format: EBook
Pages: 352

Categories:

Biography

Share…

About the author

Catrine Clay

Catrine Clay has worked for the BBC for over twenty years, directing and producing award-winning television documentaries, mainly for the History Unit. She has written three previous books. Her most recent book, King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins who Led the World to War, was published in 2007 to high acclaim ('Proof that good storytelling is a true art,' Caroline Moorehead, Spectator, 'Weird and wonderful,' Hilary Spurling, Observer). She is married with three children, and lives in London.

Praise for Trautmann's Journey

A truly remarkable story, uncovered with immense skill by Catrine Clay
Miranda Seymour, Telegraph

An extraordinary story
Mail on Sunday

Britain's best-loved German ... it's a remarkable story
Daily Mail

[A] brilliant new biography
Observer

Utterly compelling
Independent on Sunday

A gripping story
Sunday Times

It's the story of Trautmann the man rather than the footballer that makes Catrine Clay's biography so extraordinary...enthralling and uplifting.
Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday

It's dramatic. It's moving.
Evening Standard

An extraordinary yet symbolic 20th-century story, brilliantly told.
Sunday Times

Fascinating... brilliant... Clay did something that might have been thought impossible in this book by jumping between broad historical narrative and Trautmann's own story without jarring it.
The Times Book Club

Dramatic and moving.
The Scotsman

Clay applies no cosmetic brush to the past of an athlete once seen as an Aryan idol. His co-operation with this book lends poignancy to his unique passage through the showdowns of a century.
The Independent