‘I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You: Growing Up as a Football Addict’ by Greg Whitaker (2019)

I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You is a personal account of Greg Whitaker’s relationship with football fandom.  A die hard fan of Hull City and England, Whitaker recounts the highs and lows of his 20 years as a football fan.

The years covered were quite the roller-coaster ride for Hull with multiple promotions and relegations mixed with managerial changes and star signings.

Whitaker uses his experiences as a fan to reflect more broadly on the modern game.  Ultimately he finds himself impossibly drawn to the game even when he isn’t enjoying the experience.  He describes himself during this phase as a football addict, because why else would you spend time and money engaging in a hobby you aren’t enjoying?

The book works best when it captures the excitement, the glee, the sheer wonder of football when your a kid.  Whitaker vividly recalls the sensations of that time in your life when sport means so so much and the adult world is yet to intrude with its boring non-football concerns. As a coming-of-age memoir of life as a football fan it’s a very enjoyable read.

At times the ‘football addict’ theme is stretched a little too far.   I suspect Whitaker may underestimate how much his apparent falling out of love with the game is related to simply growing up and finding more (objectively) important things in life to take up his time. Perhaps the book tries to be too many things at once and may have been better served with a tighter edit.

I must admit that on realising how young Whitaker is (mid to late 20’s) I found myself being a bit cynical. Sure what does anyone know at that age! This obviously is my own  failing rather than any issue with the content of the book!  Subjectively it did influence my opinion though.  Ultimately the quality of the writing and the passion and conviction of the author overcame my (mid 30’s) cynicism.

Overall it’s a welcome addition to the library of football fan memoirs following in the footsteps of Nick Hornby’s masterpiece Fever Pitch.  I look forward to reading whatever Whitaker does next.