The summer of 2016 was one that Welsh football fans will never forget, and a sports journalist from mid Wales has written a novel encompassing all the best bits from a magical summer in France.
Inspired by Chris Coleman’s side’s exploits at Euro 2016, Jonathon Rogers, from Llandrindod Wells in Powys, decided to write a story about a Welsh fan who is down on his luck at the start of the tournament, but sees his life transform as it becomes entangled with the fortunes of the nation’s football team on their epic run to the semi-finals.
’Don’t Take Me Home - Following Wales In Euro 2016’ is Rogers’ debut novel, and he created the 278-page story in just three months after getting the idea for the story when travelling on a bus from Paris following Gareth Bale & Co’s game with Northern Ireland back in June.
"I had wanted to write a book for a while, and when passing the time on the way to the Northern Ireland game the idea to base one around the tournament came to me," said Rogers, 28, who works for Crystal Palace Football Club in London after leaving Wales back in 2012.
"Being a Welsh football fan supporter hasn’t been easy over the past couple of decades, but after we qualified for the Euros and did so well, wearing the Welsh shirt around the streets was suddenly like wearing a badge of honour, with random people coming up to me and congratulating me as if I was actually playing! It was an incredible few weeks to be Welsh, so I mixed my experiences of the tournament with other fans’ and got writing."
Taking inspiration from classic football novels such as Nick Hornby’s ’Fever Pitch’, ’Don’t Take Me Home...’ revolves around Welsh supporter Scott Thomas and his group of friends, who must take drastic measures to be a part of the Red Dragons’ historic appearance in the finals, juggling his love life, job prospects, bank balance and everything else life throws at a man who just wants to enjoy his football on both sides of the Channel.
Rogers began writing the story before Wales’ fate on the field was decided, and while he admits that he was gutted to see his country knocked out at the semi-final stage by Portugal, it helped give him the ending he was craving.
"The high point was the Belgium game, and then I genuinely thought we had a chance of winning the whole thing," he said. "Therefore it was with a heavy heart that we saw them exit in the semis, but on the other hands it set up the ending of the book that I was after - although I would have happily altered it had we lifted the trophy!"
"Don’t Take Me Home - Following Wales In Euro 2016’ is now available to buy from Amazon, priced at £9.99 in paperback or £4.99 on Kindle.