I've been wondering how to rate this and wavering between 3 and 4 stars for a few days now.
The story of Kaiser is amazing and hilarious in places. A kind of Catch Me If You Can style fantasy life but different as many people know he's he's a faker and don't care because of the perks he brings.
I found that in places the book deviates from the main story too much. The Brazilian football history is very interesting but at times I lost the thread of what some of the scenes had to do with Kaiser, if anything.
Also I would've loved to have known more about Kaiser. His children, parents and one true love are skimmed over. It would be nice to see another side to him if there is one.

As an aside I would absolutely love it if the female journalist wrote a book. Her stories were my favourite bit!

An amazing book that seems so ridiculous that it must be true. It tells the tale of a young Brazilian blessed with some football talent who preferred to live the life of a football rather than be one.

Given his good looks and natural charm he manage dot talk is way into some of the biggest and best Brazilian clubs and find all sort of ingenious excuses not to play and thus give the game away.

What follows is a riotous tale of obfuscation, excuses, faked injuries and off field exploits.

Some of the material is a bit thin and the book is padded out with some wonderful descriptions of some of the household names befriended by the Kaiser.

Many years ago George Plimpton wrote a spoof biography of a non-existent baseball pitcher entitled "The Curious Tale of Sidd Finch" and for a while I thought this was another joke but apparently it all happened.

A wild and wonderful tale that I thoroughly enjoyed and totally recommend.