When a sports autobiography comes out we always hear from the subject of the book.
But what are the challenges from the ghost-writers perspective?
How do they tease out the intimate aspects of their subject's life and career?
Tonight on Off The Ball, we spoke to three writers who have ghost-written some of the most talked about autobiographies in recent years - in David Winner, Bob Ryan and Vincent Hogan.
Winner contrasted the experiences of co-writing Dennis Bergkamp's book Stillness and Speed and Rio Ferdinand's #2Sides.
He revealed that Bergkamp argued with the publishers because of his belief that the book should be almost more of a biography rather than a conventional autobiography, while Ferdinand's book was more conventional but was back-dropped by the raw emotions of the David Moyes era with instance when the QPR defender was "upset" and "distressed" by ongoing events.
Winner also spoke about the way that the voice in Ferdinand's book is constantly his and even quotes by Glaswegian Alex Ferguson are emitted in the accent of someone who grew up in a London council estate.
Ryan spoke about the way that Boston Celtic's NBA legend Larry Bird decided to open up about some of the darker issues in his past including a brief teenage marriage.
One of the most honest sports autobiographies was Paul McGrath's Back From The Brink and Hogan spoke about how he explored the Ireland legend's childhood in a way that it had never been addressed, contextualizing something that was difficult for McGrath to sift through.
"But he never backed away from any of it," said Hogan, who added that McGrath felt like a stone was taken off his chest as he found a cathartic element to it.
Listen to the full segment via the podcast.
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