Nooruddean Choudry – författare

Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Awards 2023Nooruddean Choudry was born in 1979 — the year Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose, Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the last Shah of Iran, and Tim Martin opened his first Wetherspoons. Also that year, a local football club lost the Cup Final to Arsenal courtesy of a man named Sunderland. That club would become an all-consuming obsession for young Nooruddean, who would one day become a small brown man and, vitally, also a Red.Inshallah United is the story of the first British-born son of a Pakistani family living in England’s second city. And geography is important, because if it wasn't for his mum and dad settling in Manchester rather than anywhere else in the world, so much of what makes up Nooruddean's identity could have been so different. As it was, he grew up as a Muslim, Manchester United supporting, Morrissey-loving, Maggie-hating, working-class Manc.Inshallah United is about growing up as a strictly halal Stretford Ender; a devout Muslim and diehard Red. It’s about praying five times a day that United would sign Alan Shearer and knock the Scousers off their perch. And it’s a deeply personal account of life as a Muslim Asian Mancunian kid in the late 80s and 90s, bookmarked by the most successful period in Manchester United's history.

Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Awards 2023Nooruddean Choudry was born in 1979 — the year Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose, Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the last Shah of Iran, and Tim Martin opened his first Wetherspoons. Also that year, a local football club lost the Cup Final to Arsenal courtesy of a man named Sunderland. That club would become an all-consuming obsession for young Nooruddean, who would one day become a small brown man and, vitally, also a Red.Inshallah United is the story of the first British-born son of a Pakistani family living in England’s second city. And geography is important, because if it wasn''t for his mum and dad settling in Manchester rather than anywhere else in the world, so much of what makes up Nooruddean''s identity could have been so different. As it was, he grew up as a Muslim, Manchester United supporting, Morrissey-loving, Maggie-hating, working-class Manc.Inshallah United is about growing up as a strictly halal Stretford Ender; a devout Muslim and diehard Red. It’s about praying five times a day that United would sign Alan Shearer and knock the Scousers off their perch. And it’s a deeply personal account of life as a Muslim Asian Mancunian kid in the late 80s and 90s, bookmarked by the most successful period in Manchester United''s history.

Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Awards 2023 'There was always hope. There was always next season. Inshallah.' Inshallah United is about growing up as a strictly halal Stretford Ender; a devout Muslim and diehard Manchester Red. It’s about praying five times a day that United would sign Alan Shearer and knock the Scousers off their perch. And it’s a deeply personal account of life as a Muslim Asian Mancunian kid in the late 80s and 90s, bookmarked by the most successful period in Manchester United's history.

Coming of age as a Pakistani Mancunian In a dramatically changing world, one young man … just wishes Steak Bakes were halal Just a week after the world rejoices at a shiny new millennium – and realises that fears over Y2K were well OTT – you officially cross the threshold from adolescence to adulthood. On the cusp of turning twenty-one at the very start of the twenty-first century. Goodbye kids’ table at weddings, hello relatives declaring: ‘It'll be you next!’The scope of who and what you can become are limitless. As one chaotic chapter of your life ends, another begins. In the words of Natasha Bedingfield's yet unwritten Unwritten, the rest is still unwritten. Mind you, the younger Bedingfield wasn't (and still isn't) a working-class lad from Manchester with a cob on. And she defo didn't say ‘Inshallah’.Now the Asian side of you is unexpectedly fashionable, but the Muslim side is suddenly The Enemy, and your Northernness is a mad-for-it stereotype. Madonna is appropriating Asian-ness, Timbaland is ransacking Bollywood for samples, and Osama is turning your life upside down from a cave far away from Crumpsall.Assalam Alaikum, Our Kid is the often comical, always complicated story of being Muslim and Manc in the new Millennium. It's about trying your hardest to figure out who you are, what you wanna be, and where you want to go in life – all while the rest of the world is busy defining all that for you.