Offside

James Calder has spent fifteen years performing a version of himself so convincing he almost believes it.

He's twenty-nine, a Premier League captain, and has never told anyone the truth about himself.

Noah Achebe is twenty-seven, British-Nigerian, the best physiotherapist at the club, and out in his personal life and precise in his professional one. He has one firm rule: no involvement with players. His Tuesday-Thursday treatment sessions with the captain are entirely professional.

Until they're not.

Meanwhile, a Herald journalist has noticed that the Premier League's most private captain has never had a girlfriend. She's patient. She's professional. And she's getting closer.

Offside is a novel about touch and restraint, about institutional closets and professional ethics, about two men discovering that the most important distance in the world is the distance between who you've been and who you actually are.

Book 1 of The Beautiful Game series.