Walk Alone – the Craig Johnston Story that inspired Australia’s golden generation, is set for re-release this month to mark Liverpool Football Club’s historic visit Down Under.
Walk Alone - the Craig Johnston Story that inspired Australia-s golden generation, is set for re-release this month to mark Liverpool Football Club-s historic visit Down Under.
The Merseyside giants are due to play Melbourne Victory at the MCG on July 24 in an event that will invoke memories of Johnston-s contribution to Liverpool-s proud history.
The goalscoring midfielder, who carved out a glittering career with the Reds- all-conquering teams of the 1980s, remains Australia-s most decorated footballer.
His best-selling memoir tells the tale of how an Aussie teenager left the gum-tree lined parks of his homeland to beat rejection, injury and adversity on the way to becoming a Kop favourite.
It still stands as the best how-to for aspiring Aussie footballers dreaming of scaling the heights of the world game and was a source of inspiration for Lucas Neal, Harry Kewell, Mark Schwarzer, Tim Cahill and members of the Socceroos- golden generation.
This month-s Liverpool visit reunites Johnston with the Merseyside giants with whom he won an astonishing nine trophies including five league championships, two league cups, an FA Cup and the European Cup.
He is perhaps most famously remembered for scoring at Wembley in Liverpool-s 3-1 FA Cup Final victory of 1986.
He retired from the game at the relatively young age of 27 but his contribution was far from done. In retirement he linked with adidas to design and develop the Predator. The revolutionary product became the world-s best-selling football boot.
Walk Alone not only charts what motivated Johnston to succeed where others tipped him to fail, but tells the inside story of just why he was destined to never wear the green and gold of Australia.
The generation of players inspired by Johnston-s pioneering ways helped heal that wound two years ago when the Australian Professional Footballers Association named him as the third recipient of the Alex Tobin Medal for services to the game.
Today, Johnston nurses a desire to pass on that legacy via a player development system based on the techniques that served him so well.
“The secrets don-t change,” he says. “The methodologies remain the same. If we can get that right, my dream of Australia winning a World Cup just might come true.”