J is for Joao. Joao was always going to be an important supporting character in Foul and Fair. I knew that I needed someone to be a catalyst for rapid improvement in the Swifts, and a new assistant coach seemed just the thing to challenge some of James’ habits and practices. When I first conceived the story, I toyed with making it work as a how-to guide to coaching as well as a work of fiction, but I realised there were several reasons to tone that side of the narrative down. For one thing, I thought it would come across as overly didactic and would get in the way of the more important task of telling the story. For another, if someone is going to write a book about how to coach football, it should be someone a lot better at it than me. In the end I restricted myself to having Joao embody a few basic principles that help to define the difference between the likes of James and the likes of Kieran.

I wanted Joao to call James ‘Mister James’, recognising the honorific given to managers in certain footballing cultures. My research identified Portugal as one of the countries where this is the case, so I set about looking for a Portuguese name that would fit. Joao means ‘God is gracious’, which seemed an appropriate sentiment for the difference he makes in James’ life. There were a couple of Portuguese coaches on my FA Level 2 course, and one of them subsequently went on to coach my eldest son at Under 18s. The character of Joao wasn’t entirely modelled on him, although on a superficial level they have a lot in common. When I think of Joao, it’s Claudio’s face that I see and his voice that I hear. Claudio is a very different coach to Joao, although – as Peter and his under 18 team-mates at Christchurch FC would, I’m sure, agree – he was a very good coach himself, as well as being a thoroughly nice man. Thanks for the inspiration, Claudio.