Greatest of All Time

by Alex Allison, Joe Pitts (narrator), Dialogue Books (publisher)

Samson Kabarebe is on the verge of stardom. At just nineteen, he's poised to take the football world by storm. Joining a struggling Premier League team, he steps into the spotlight, taking over the position-and squad number-of a rising homegrown talent who is wrestling with his own dreams and desires.

What begins as resentment between the two young athletes quickly evolves into an intense, undeniable bond. Samson's fiery drive, electrifying skills and irresistible charm spark a transformation, not just in the fortunes of the team, but in the lives around him. As their connection deepens, the story hurtles into a high-stakes world of competition, passion and raw want. Both men are forced to confront the pressures of masculinity, the ever-present threat of scandal, and the fragile balance of living in a body that could betray you at any moment.

With humour, heart and a touch of rebellion, this tender novel explores queer love and the trials of growing up in the hyper-masculine world of sport.

Genres: Contemporary, Queer, LGBT, Adult, M M Romance, Fiction

Audible Audio

Published March 6, 2025

About the author

Alex Allison was born in London in 1991. He studied Art History (BA) at University of York and Creative Writing (MA) at University of Manchester.

Alex currently works for BCG, delivering upskilling programmes to clients across the globe. Prior to this, he previously held positions at PwC and at the British Library.

Alex is the author of The Art of the Body, a novel published by Dialogue Books in September 2019. Winner of the 2020 Somerset Maugham Award and longlisted for the 2020 Desmond Elliott Prize. His second novel, Greatest of All Time, will release on 30th January 2025.

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) I was initially curious about this because of the plot’s resemblance to Ross Raisin’s A Natural. The unnamed narrator is a young footballer playing for a Premier League team. When prodigiously talented French-Rwandan striker Samson joins the team, the narrator develops a powerful infatuation that transforms into an illicit, if somewhat one-sided, relationship. Throughout, I felt the main drawback of Greatest of All Time is that it doesn’t seem quite sure what it wants to be: is it a coming-of-age story about the protagonist’s struggle to accept his sexuality, a twisted romance, or contemporary fiction about football? Throwing in various asides – the class confusion of being vaulted from a modest background to celebrity status; the physical challenges of being a professional athlete; the prevalence of racism and homophobia within sport – Allison perhaps bites off a bit more than he can chew. The good news is that each of the main plot elements are well-realised, the prose is clean, and the characters are sketched with care; I rarely felt the momentum waning. The short, snappy chapters keep it fresh.

Also, as an avowed audiobook sceptic, I was impressed by this one. A single narrator attempting a large variety of accents and tones is something I often struggle with, but Will Edgerton does a great job here.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I adored this.

I really felt the loneliness and desperation of the narrator and loved Samson. I'm not a football fan but I was gripped by the plot, not just for the romance but also the politics.

[Matt Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story follows an unnamed 19-year old footballer in an unspecified struggling premier league football team in Northern England. He was branded as a working class homegrown talent - trained at the academy team and then got admitted into the main team due to his diligence and hard work. His career trajectory changed when French-Rwandan Samson joins the team from Monaco. Their bond deepened in unexpected ways (wink wink). The inner turmoil and anxiety of the narrator are highlighted as he navigates his affection towards Samson, his relationship with his family and the pressure from the club, fans and ultimately himself.

As not a football fan, I was pleasantly engaged with the story and rooting for the team. It's interesting to see the reality (? i actually don't know how the football industry works..) of how footballers train and the staff run a club: the players transfer, the number of points or matches won/drawn in order to stay in the league, sports psychology and injury recoveries. My recent watch of Dear England, a play at the National Theatre about how manager Gareth Southgate transformed the English national football team with the help of psychologist Pippa Grange was very fitting. It really elevated my reading experience.

Fast pacing, short chapters. Clever structure paying homage to an actual football match. I can tell the author is truly passionate about football and vocal about the issues surround the sport (racism, diversity, masculinity, mental health, sexuality and funding). I wish the ending would be slightly different or keep going. I want to find out more about the journey of the narrator!

[Luke Esdale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, the only positive thing I can think of to say about this book was that it was a very easy read. The chapters were incredibly short and thus making this a quick and easy page turner. Unfortunately, that is where my praise ends. I found myself incredibly frustrated that the main character is never named nor is the Premier League football club. Beyond this Samson is a one note character with very little depth and someone who uses the main character to get what he wants. Their relationship is unequal, unfair, and deluded. The ending was boring and there was no real plot or story. There were times where nuggets of interest were thrown in but never developed. The relationship with his father, the racism that Samson faces are all touched on and never expanded upon. Whilst there is potential for a book like this, for me, I struggled with the amount of football and the lack of development of Samson and the main character’s relationship. Overall, the characters are unlikeable, the story was slow and not interesting and unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend this.

[Kat Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tender dissection of what we'll tolerate for love by the crumb.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greatest of All Time is a queer love story set in the hyper-masculine world of the Premier League. It's raw, heartfelt and propulsive - I loved it so much.

The nineteen-year-old narrator is a footballer for a struggling Northern club – a working-class, youth academy talent who has grown up in the shadow of his team’s stadium. When French-Rwandan Samson Kabarebe arrives from Monaco – a dynamic and magnetic player with a temperament to match – the narrator finds himself replaced as the side’s striker. What begins as rivalry between the two young men is complicated by a powerful attraction. So much is at stake for both of them: both players have their dreams in touching distance and the risk of scandal is ever-present. Against this highly-charged backdrop – the heightened emotions of the pitch and the pressure-cooker of the changing rooms – desire plays out between Samson and the narrator, ricocheting between frustration, obsession, and tenderness. Whilst Greatest of All Time can be neatly described as Call Me By Your Name meets Ted Lasso, you absolutely do not need to be a fan of the beautiful game (or, indeed, Timothée Chalamet) to enjoy it. This intense and intimate story is also a universal one, recognisable to anyone who has experienced the headiness of a formative infatuation. Meanwhile, the novel’s nuanced exploration of masculinity – the fragility beneath the bravado – and how it intersects with sexuality, class and race, feels vital and timely.

The novel is immediately gripping, thrusting the reader straight into its taut, electrifying storyline: an erotic push-and-pull which, for me, was remiscient of reading Sally Rooney's Normal People. I longed to return to this book whenever I wasn't reading it. After I finished Greatest of All Time, I spent several days ‘getting over it’ like a teenager with a crush.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read, if not an entirely happy one. [I’m inadvertently going through a patch of reading fiction featuring gay (or men who have sex with men) characters at the moment who aren’t having a great time of it, which may cloud this review!]

As a football fan and a gay man, I can with some confidence say that Alex Allison has structured a realistic world that reflects both modern football and the challenges of young men facing up to and responding to their sexuality and sexual identity and the confusion therein.

The pace is fast, with short and numerous chapters enabling the reader to experience snippets of the narrators life, all woven together across the breadth of a football season and all that that career entails. I look forward to reading more of the authors work in due course.

[Wickus Bester · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very deep, a slice-of-life-esque novel that's literally just football and gay lovemaking. (And as a gay man, most of the stuff they did sounds extremely painful.) The characters are a bit one dimensional too, with no real satisfying payoff. Just two boys, trying to score.

Still - the themes of brief encounters with someone that we obsess over and the small ways in which we change each other still had me moved. Not a terrible read, but would like to see more of an arc in future books.

[Beth Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked this very much. i don’t understand why the narrator didn’t have a name - it didn’t suit the book at all. and i felt like the ending was a bit disappointing - not that i necessarily would have wanted a big bang like them being outed or anything like that, but it felt like it just kind of trailed off

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was really interesting. it's essentially a book about a young queer man in an unnamed football club in the north of england, who has a very intense relationship with a very talented player on loan. it touches on a bunch of themes (homophobia and racism in sport and more broadly, the british media, the struggle of the working class, masculinity) and does so in really sharp, short chapters. this is a really compelling read but i found it a hard one.

not to get into, of course, but i think alex allison's characters here are really well-done but that means they're SO frustrating. i really believed in many things here: they felt complex. but i wanted to shake them so many times!!! the sense of disorientation and a desperation to be loved and understood was very palpable here. i felt SO BAD for the narrator many times and his relationship with samson was so interesting but i felt extremely sad. it felt like two men looking at each other sideways. there was just this gulf of misunderstanding at the heart of it.

this was really well-written and i enjoyed it. it's very achey. i think i'd have liked a bit more depth to the central relationship or around the edges: the narrator and his family were a delight to read and i thought it was a good approach to the way that the working class in particular invest so much identity in their football clubs. a good read!

[Doug Sherk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found hard copy edition of this book in Foyle's, in London, and initially thought it was the formulaic, soppy kind of gay romance novel I typically find too one dimensional and uninteresting. Then I started reading the text and I was sucked in, and understand why in the UK the book is positioned as gay literary fiction.

The story is laid out in Hemingway-like brevity. The author's agent's website notes a similarity with Brandon Taylor's style. I'm not so sure I totally buy that opinion...my two cents is GOAT reminds me of Brian Washington's style. Nonetheless, I loved the complexity of the story, which is told from the first person POV. There are a multitude of story questions arising within the pages, perhaps a few too many as the resolution of some come a little too abruptly and happen off page. Nonetheless, the ending is surprising in what doesn't happen...spoiler alert, for a book catagorized in the U.S. as gay romance, the ending doesn't follow the happily ever after formula.

The bottomline, a compelling story with solid main character growth occurs within the pages of GOAT and I would have welcomed another hundred pages to allow all those intriguing story questions the room to be fully developed.

[Vincent Liu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The infatuation at the heart of this book is so compelling. The protagonist is written with such compassion, you really understand his obsession with Samson and more importantly the person he has imagined, fantasized, Samson to be.

Although logically you want to root against the relationship, emotionally I was right there with him. It reminded me of the relationships in Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan and I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel, but thoughtfully and sensitively translated in a gay context. It's a complicated coming of age that is not straightforward, taking a step back for every two forward, and in that way was so relatable and human.

You don't have to like football to enjoy this book, which is really driven by its characters. Highly recommend.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

What begins as resentment between the two young athletes quickly evolves into an intense, undeniable bond. Samson's fiery drive, electrifying skills and irresistible charm spark a transformation, not just in the fortunes of the team, but in the lives around him. As their connection deepens, the story hurtles into a high-stakes world of competition, passion and raw want. Both men are forced to confront the pressures of masculinity, the ever-present threat of scandal, and the fragile balance of living in a body that could betray you at any moment.

With humour, heart and a touch of rebellion, this tender novel explores queer love and the trials of growing up in the hyper-masculine world of sport.

[Matt W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim, quickly after its release, and was really blown away.

There seem to be a lot of M/M fiction/romance books set in the world of sport at the moment, but this is so much more. It highlights what it means to be gay in the high-pressure, highly-heterosexual world of football, yes… but it also touches upon racism, loneliness, family dynamics, the list goes on.

Don’t expect this to have a totally upbeat feel or ending, but it’s well worth it anyway. I loved the pace, with mostly short chapters moving us through a whole football season. This book really resonated with me.

[Benj · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had all the ingredients to interest me but chose not to go into depth about any of them. On the surface, it delivers exactly what it says it will: a slightly elevated queer story about football culture and the closet. I, however, feel as though it failed to say anything substantial, skirting around the issues it presents, much like the vagueness that surrounds the narrative’s geography. Furthermore, I found this lack of detail and absent name of the protagonist kept him at arms length and Samson was just a poor character. I also am so unsure about the ending it seems so wildly out of place. It wasn’t very romantic either. Most egregious, however, is the final 10 pages which middles any message that could be glesned from the narrative.

4/10

[Charlie Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't worry if you know nothing about football (like me), there's still plenty to like here! The chapters are short and the plot moves quickly. Samson is a really well-drawn, complex character - even when he is at his worst, you feel for him. His arc with the narrator rings as totally truthful, and I was completely invested. At times, I felt myself wishing the side characters were a touch more fleshed out, but they give you a good sense of the world.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eine Geschichte darüber, wie viel mal manchmal für die Zuneigung anderer aufgibt und sich selbst verletzt.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to warm up to it but it drew me in in the end.. The characters were fascinating and it certainly didn’t give you the easy option at any point.

[Gert Kruitbosch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Closetgay in the football world. When will the frist really get out of the closet in a major team? Well written, nice story line.

[Isaac Lutterodt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A horror story, actually. The closet is a nasty place

[Pedro Briggs · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me forever to get through this one. Jeez

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

europeans are pretty gay