No-brainer

The true story of a footballer who paid the ultimate price for playing the game he loved

'A heartbreaking but still inspiring insight into the real-life impact of the biggest issue facing the world’s biggest sport.' Jeremy Wilson, Chief Sports Reporter, The Telegraph

'Beautifully written, immaculately researched and pulls no punches.' Ian Herbert, Daily Mail

This is the extraordinary true story of the ‘real’ Bill Gates: a famous footballer and millionaire businessman, who fell victim to football's guilty secret and who, in his final years, made a commitment to use his brain to save the next generation of football players.

Born in a mining village in northern England, Bill was Britain’s first £50-a-week teenage superstar. He played 333 games for Middlesbrough before becoming the first entrepreneur to turn sports shops into high-street fashion, making millions of pounds. With his wife Judith, he lived a life of luxury on a Caribbean island, far from his humble roots.

But in 2017 his life changed when he was diagnosed with football’s best-kept secret, probable Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, caused by repetitive head impacts – mostly from heading the ball.

Award-winning journalist Mike Amos perfectly captures the twists and turns of Bill's career, from the coal mining village of Ferryhill in the 1950s, his footballing career in the 60s and 70s, a chain of sports shops in the 80s, to an exotic lifestyle on Grand Cayman in the 90s, to the difficult journey to safeguard the future of football.

The ground-breaking charity Bill and Judith set up, Head Safe Football, has supported families of players with CTE – and educates players, coaches, sports scientists, and parents to recognise that CTE begins in young footballers and can be prevented with common-sense policies and training.

If you have ever headed a football, if your child or grandchild heads footballs, this is a book you need to read.

Acclaimed in the national media

Reviews

"A heartbreaking but still inspiring insight into the real-life impact of the biggest issue facing the world’s biggest sport. But does football care enough about its former heroes to take sufficient action?” Jeremy Wilson,...