Extra Time: Euro 96 Reloaded, by Andrew Males, Price: £9.99
Wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow turn the clock back and return to a former time?
That’s the premise of Andrew Males’ highly entertaining Extra Time. For some reason you don’t tend to get a wealth of decent football novels, so you need to make the most of it when a good one comes along – and this certainly falls into that category.
The main character in the book is Alex, whose life is in turmoil. His girlfriend has announced that she’s pregnant, his work life is full of mishaps and his best friend Pravi always beats him at FIFA.
He yearns for the simpler times of 20 years earlier when he was footloose and fancy free. So when he and Pravi find a way to jump back to the summer of 1996 whenever they like, it becomes a temporary haven.
However – and without wishing to give too much away – he and his best pal soon begin to realise that going back to that time when football was coming home is not quite as straightforward as they thought.
They wonder if they can change the past – most notably that agonising penalty shoot-out defeat to Germany in the Euro 96 semi-finals after Paul Gascoigne had gone within a millimetre of winning it for the Three Lions.
There’s a lot of witty dialogue and plenty of crazy escapades as the book veers between past and present. It’s always a good sign when the pages zip along and you’re eager to find out what happens to the main characters.
It’s a funny book that has been well thought out and is perfectly timed to be out now with the Euros taking place this summer. It will bring back plenty of memories – good and bad for those who lived through Euro 96 first time around.
It is the author’s second novel, having published 26 Miles to the Moon in 2015. It’s been worth the lengthy wait and may have helped him on a personal level to exorcise his demons.
In the notes about the author, it says: “England’s agonising defeat in Euro 96 devastated him for many years after. He hopes that having written this book, he can finally watch the Gazza chance and not scream out in pain.”
Rating out of 10: 9
