The keeper of dreams

John Hendrie, Barnsley's ex-manager, on Lars Leese: 'Lars Leese is a shambles.

He's a loser who never achieved anything.'Dave Hill, in the Guardian, on The Keeper of Dreams: 'Leese's outsider story takes us - to the true heartbeat of our national game'At the age of 28, German goalkeeper Lars Leese was catapulted from a minor league football field somewhere near Cologne to a small industrial town in the north of England.

Something of a culture shock, certainly, but nothing compared to finding himself in goal for Barnsley playing the mighty Liverpool at Anfield in front of over 45,000 spectators.

Plucked from obscurity and playing in one of the most important leagues in the world, Leese experienced in real life what thousands of boys - and men - can only dream of: stepping out of the crowd and onto a Premiership pitch.

Lars Leese's foray into the wild world of professional football lasted only three years, but his journey from computer software salesman to Premiership goalie is a remarkable story.

Here, Ronald Reng traces his stratospheric rise and equally alarming descent: the resulting narrative is an indispensable antidote to the traditional footballing briography and a unique - and at times shocking - outsider's view of English life.

Not since you last read the back pages of the News of the World will you have seen such an accurate picture of life as a Premiership footballer.'Remarkable- Provides an extraordinary snap-shot of English behaviour in a professional football dressing-room and in a Yorkshire town.' Henry Winter, Daily Telegraph