FROM THE AUTHOR
David Lee Wheatley
Age 33
My love of football stretches back to early childhood. The first game I can remember watching on TV was the Sunderland v Norwich City Milk Cup final at Wembley in 1985. I can recall my older brother getting ready to travel down to London in the wee small hours of the match-day to see The Lads in action.
Later, I sat transfixed in front of the television, as my beloved Sunderland AFC lost 1-0 to a Norwich City side counting Sunderland hero Gary Rowell and future SAFC manager Steve Bruce among its ranks.
More disappointment followed in the summer of 1986 when a devious yet delightfully brilliant Diego Maradona ripped out English hearts at the World Cup in Mexico. Genius outwitted the battling Three Lions to send them tumbling out of the competition at the quarter-final stage.
Encapsulated within those two occurrences lay my education in the supporting of Sunderland and England, standing me in good stead for many more downs than ups for my teams from that point on!
In 1987, Sunderland dropped into the third tier of English football for the first (so far only) time in the club's history. It was a desperate time, but the initial knock-back allowed the side to rejuvenate and come back stronger. It duly did so under the tutelage of Denis Smith and thanks in large part to the goals of Marco Gabbiadini.
An interest in European football sparked around that time, when I got a copy of a full colour, 1000-page European Football Yearbook. It was just after Euro '88, another big letdown for England, and my thirst for knowledge drew me to the information held within this fantastic book. I was simply fascinated by the European clubs; their strips, crests, players and histories. Reading the book from cover to cover many times over, I developed a love of football away from British shores that seemed way beyond my years.
Writing about the subject began around the same period. I wrote to Sunderland AFC requesting an interview with some of the players when aged around 10. My request was granted, which was an early start to my journalism career!
Fast forward to the present day and I've had my work published in several magazines, newspapers and websites over many years; including SAFC club magazine Legion of Light, The Crack Magazine, Football Echo and footballrants.com amongst several others (plus my blog of course).
I continue to seek out as much writing work as possible, be it paid or unpaid, freelance or full-time.
Football and writing are my two greatest passions and I hope that through the various articles and features that I pen I get that across to you, the reader.
You can follow me on Twitter and Facebook if you'd like. I would be very pleased to have you join me.
Also, if you have any writing jobs or opportunities that you'd like to discuss with me I'd love to hear about them. See the bottom of this page for relevant contact details.
Thank you to all of you that take the time to check out my work and support it.
The journey to develop my career and reach my goals continues...
Contact me
Twitter: @davewh1980
facebook.com/DLWSports
Email: davewh1980@hotmail.com
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