Joel Rookwood

people who are interested in the book will look at it and just go i'm not into those 22 cities or what about x y and z so we're hoping this is going to be the first of of at least two books and we've already got like a list of cities that might come in in the following months but you know moving on from from your question question really but i do i do think it's great to feel you're in a football city you know when you're in it but there's more than 22 of these around the

Yeah, and with cities that have more than one team, they have that kind of constant battle between them.

You've got cities like London and Buenos Aires, which have got many.

But the ball got rolling on this book when we met, Dan and I and another mate of ours, Alex, met in Naples for Napoli winning their first title in 30-odd years.

And...

You know, the entire city just came alive and it just felt like an incredible moment.

And I think people who don't follow football, they don't have the lows of the losses that, you know, I feel sorry for you sometimes after the one for a rap show.

The season we've just started and all that kind of stuff.

But, you know, they also they don't have the highs and I wouldn't swap.

one for the other I think people that don't have the kind of passions that we do with football they don't half miss out on the highs as well and the shared highs that you have because you don't go through these things alone you don't really go to the match on your own you don't watch footy on your own you're there and you're sharing the space and these clubs kind of bleed into the cities and vice versa particularly when there's a class consciousness or like you say a civic pride that comes with those places

I mean I really love Glasgow and I've mentioned that before but I've known Paddy for 20 years and you know reading that chapter I thought that was great but I also think the Italian chapters were fantastic but I really enjoyed the ones I learned more about like I didn't know anything about Jakarta really I mean I've been to all these places I've been trying to get around every country in the world I've been on that like 25 years so that kind of helped inform the decision of where we were going but

Yeah, the Jakarta one may not be top of people's list, but I was like, I didn't really know much about it.

So from that point of view, a lot of people who flick through it, you know, you buy the pearl on holiday and you'll go, I'll have a little read of Naples.

Because you don't have to read it sequentially.

And for me, if I was picking up for the first time, I'd probably be like, oh, Rosario.

Because a lot of people talk about Buenos Aires and Rio, but Rosario is the real heart of...

And just one more point, John, if I could just mention, we've got an event on early August, on 3rd of August, in Waterstones in Liverpool.

So it's going to be like a book signing.

So if you happen to be in the city on that day, you'd be more than welcome to that.

And tickets are available on the website.