A BASINGSTOKE dad is bringing out a series of short biographies of footballers for children to read and enjoy.

Kyle Buckland, 36 and of Winklebury, said his aim is to create ‘My Football Hero’, a series of positive stories of footballers that can be enjoyed by children aged 8-12, including his two young daughters.

A data analyst by profession, Kyle came up with the idea during the first lockdown when he decided to do something he loves.

“A lot of people were looking at careers outside the standard 9-5 jobs and I was one of them,” Kyle said.

“I thought long and hard about it and I wanted to do something connecting my kids to football.

“There are lots of sports biographies, but not for kids. When I was younger, I would have loved to have a biography on a footballer, rather than looking up on my dad’s notes, in which you can’t understand half the words.

“My books don’t go into any negative details and focus on positives as these footballers are kids’ heroes.”

The books are not exclusive to male footballers. Kyle has so far published six biographies – Cristiano Ronaldo, Jack Grealish, Mason Mount, Phil Foden, Beth Mead and Lucy Bronze.

He is now working on Mo Salah and Harvey Elliott, and has finished the outlines for Jude Bellingham and Nikita Parris. Each book is around 100 pages long.

An avid football fan and Portsmouth FC supporter, Kyle said he would have loved to have these books when he was younger.

“I wanted these books to read how I would have wished when I was younger,” he said.

“I would read anything and everything football related but was never interested in books. There weren’t any biographies aimed at kids. So I ended up reading magazines, but I would have loved these type of books.”

The books are available at £4.99 each on Amazon. To find out more about current books available and future releases, visit myfootballheroes.com or follow on Facebook @myfootballhero.