Speelgoed - Hilde Van Malderen book review

While the Premier League was completely in the ban of the Secret Footballer last year, little old Belgium got his own football related `scandal book` last year.

Speelgoed is written by a female football reporter, and when it came out shortly after the recent world cup in Brazil, a lot of newspapers said this would end her career, that it nailed players indirectly to the wall etc etc...

So I waited a while until the hype (and the price) went down, and then grabbed me a copy.  In a way, this is a severe disappointing book if you`re looking for gory details.  There aren`t any.

Now, don`t get me wrong, this is a rather enjoyable book, detailing on her career so far, touching issues like players that are getting depressed when stuck with a long injury, the sometimes man dishonouring conditions testing players reside in and the likes.

But this isn`t the book you `need` to get if you want to see mud thrown around.  It`s all written neutrally enough and `clean` enough that everyone might get home and sleep well after they have read this book (okay, bar perhaps former AA Gent assistent coach Ferrera, but he is about the only one briefly `named and shamed`, and that was already more or less public knowledge).

Sure, there are sexual insinuations that have been made on her behalf (because face it, she`s no ugly duckling), as a woman between the testosteron driven world of football players isn`t that day to day occurence, but all in all, it remains friendly and nice.

Now, the only thing I did think was a real let down is the length.  It LOOKS like a thick book, but it`s actually only 175 pages (including all the thanks etc), printed on sturdy paper and using wide spacings... so you`re through it rather fast.

Oh, and if there are any Charlton fans reading this post, this is the lady in question interviewing, yeah, you know who and you`ll get to know him soon enough.  I`m just glad he is a gonner here in Liege...