Lucas: From the Streets of Soweto to Soccer Superstar by Richard Coomber

Description

“This is my hero” Nelson Mandela

Leeds United’s biggest crowd of the 2004-05 season was for a testimonial match. But this was no ordinary testimonial.

The South African international so captured the hearts of Leeds fans that they still chant his name years after he retired and the Kaiser Chiefs band took their name from his first club.
In his native land he is an iconic figure, who led his country to two World Cups as they emerged from the sporting wilderness and whose reputation as a player and a man helped convince the rest of the world that the World Cup finals should go to South Africa.
The kid who was rescued from the violence of the anti-apartheid struggle in Soweto when his parents sent him away from home for fear he would end up in gaol or even dead, received the ultimate accolade when Nelson Mandela ‘He is my hero.’
This is the story of how Lucas overcame a tough childhood, survived a shooting, and refused to be diverted from his destiny by injury, homesickness and adjusting to English conditions to become not only a football superstar but acknowledged as one of the nicest people in the game.

Lucas Radebe’s story is much more than just another biography of a footballer. It is inspiring and heart-warming, tinged with tragedy yet marked throughout by his trademark smile that has lit up two continents and touched thousands of lives.