Crafted with enormous appeal, GIBBO is a moving account that sweeps the reader into the world of a young lad born in the Black Country of England, a place rich in history and steeped in the glory of medieval times, the story enhanced by Gibbo’s remembrances of his beloved football tribe, West Bromwich Albion, and his desire to bring English footy to America. Gibbo’s writer weaves a poignant life story that will stay around forever, transferring to paper an admixture of gusto, humour, and sadness from a broad yam-yam dialect that cannot be obscured by favourite son, Paul André Gibbons, one of the Southeast USA’s most popular Coerver soccer coaches.
Through tears of remembrance, Gibbo relives the pain of loss that sends him spiraling into despondency as childhood dreams are dashed on the rocks of bereavement. He takes to the soccer ball that is his bastion, to the game that identifies him, learning that there is eventually a reprieve and he must make the exchange of beauty for ashes if he is to move on in life.
Follow Gibbo as he coaches and teaches soccer in the Black Country of England, in America, and with his soccer camps the world over, including Coaching for Conservation in Botswana, Africa.
Far more emotional than Gibbo’s trials and triumphs in the world of soccer is the thought of his grandchildren a continent away, growing older and taller by the day, and he is not there to see it happen. He learns a man’s worth is not measured in dollars and cents or in British pound but in a job well done whether in Europe, South Asia, Africa, or the USA, and that the icing on his cake is an annual trip to The Black Country of England to strengthen the ties that bind.
