A Season on the Med: Football Where the Sun Always Shines

By Alex Wade

A Season on the Med: Football Where the Sun Always Shines is a story of football where the sun always shines - with a difference. In the wake of Brexit, writer Alex Wade decamped to Menton, the last town on the Cote d'Azur. During a swim between France and Italy, he realised two things. An array of great football clubs - from Nice, Marseille and Monaco to Genoa, Sampdoria and Spezia - were on his doorstep on the French and Italian Rivieras. Plus his hero, Queens Park Rangers' talisman Stan Bowles, once played on the Med. Wade embarked on a journey of discovery to experience Riviera football over the 2021/22 season, with two questions in mind. Is football on the Med more laid-back, languid and amiable than elsewhere? And could he make it to Athens in a tribute to Bowles? Eloquently written with a blend of reportage, travelogue and memoir, A Season on the Med ends in Brumano, Italy, as Wade captures the spirit of Riviera football and confronts the meaning of heroism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pitch Publishing
• Release date: Oct 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781801503570

Alex Wade

Alex Wade is a writer, freelance journalist, media lawyer and lecturer. As well as running the Surf Nation blog, Alex has edited and/or contributed columns and features for many national newspapers and magazines including The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent titles, the FT, The Telegraph, Huck, Wavelength, The Surfer's Path, Flush, Coast and Cornwall Today. In 2009, Alex was short-listed as Sports Feature Writer of the Year in the Sports Journalists' Association's awards and he has sat on various occasions as a judge for Coast's annual awards. He was the first UK writer to cover surfing in serious depth for a national newspaper. Alex has travelled the globe extensively in search of the biggest waves and best breaks. He has written about surf breaks from Hawaii and Costa Rica to France and Portugal. Despite a restless life he thinks he has found paradise in West Penwith, Cornwall, UK, where he surfs all year round.

Reviews for A Season on the Med

[Antony Carr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fantastic book. The author does a great job of bringing the places and games he has been to and watched to life.