Malcolm Christie – The Reality of the Dream, by Malcolm Christie with Mathew Mann, published by Morgan Lawrence Publishing Services, Price: £14.99
IF YOU want to know about the highs and lows of professional football, then you could do a lot worse than have a read of Malcolm Christie’s autobiography.
The opening part of the book covers his early days in football – being turned down by his local club Peterborough United and then making progress in Non-League with Deeping Rangers and Nuneaton Borough.
Eventually his talent in front of goal was spotted by Derby County and he made the spectacular leap from Non-League to the Premier League.
And then, on January 30, 1999, he made his top-flight debut as a half-time sub-stitute in a 1-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday.
It was just the start for the nippy Christie who had had always had an eye for goal. Premier League goals soon followed for the Rams as did England Under-21 honours.
In total, he scored 36 goals in 129 appearances for Derby, who had slipped out of the top flight by the time he left to join Middlesbrough in January 2003. He joined Boro in a £3m double deal with defender Chris Riggott.
But his hopes of taking his career to the next level were effectively dashed towards the end of that year when he broke his leg in a training ground challenge with, of all people, Riggott.
That was the start of a downhill spiral for Christie that he could never get out of. He makes clear in the book that he felt Boro’s treatment of his injury could have been a lot better and the lengthy slog to get back to fitness took a toll on his mental health.
Then came time out of contract, a dispiriting trial at Hull and a brief cameo at Leeds before he hung up his boots in January 2009.
“It’s tough to admit, but I’d fallen out of love with football, and football had fallen out of love with me,” he explained. “I’d had the dream as a boy, lived it as a man and by the age of 29, it had soured and was all over.”
All told, this is a refreshingly honest and open account of what being a footballer is really like. Everything can change in an instant and life after football can be tough going.
But Christie has got memories to last a lifetime, including a crucial Derby goal at his boyhood favourites Manchester United, and it says a lot for him that he wants his book to help others who struggle to deal with their mental health demons.
“I want this story, my journey, to help someone, even if it’s just one person,” he said. “I want you to know that it’s OK to admit when you’re struggling. That it’s OK to ask for help. I wish I had spoken up as things would have been massively different for me.”
Rating out of 10: 7
