Anthony Gordon is hitting the books at Euro 2024 and has just added a Cristiano Ronaldo recommendation to his reading list as he bids to take his game to new heights.
The 23-year-old has excelled during his first full season at Newcastle and is now looking to become a continental champion for the second straight summer.
Gordon was named player of the tournament after helping England win last year’s Under-21 European Championship in Georgia and has been focused on kicking on from that high.
The forward is driven by a desire for self-development, which he has continued during his first major tournament with the senior team out in Germany.
“I like self-help books, a lot of psychology things,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I feel like I’m going to read it and be better or come out of it knowing something that I didn’t before.
“I’m not really a fiction reader, that’s never been something I like to do. More down the psychology route.
“I spoke about it recently on the Overlap, the book that has had the biggest impact on my life is ‘Winning’ by Tim Grover.
“The author is Michael Jordan’s ex-trainer and Kobe Bryant’s, and I love American sports anyway, so I got the book through those sources.
“That’s an incredible book about mentality and the things you’ve got to go through to really succeed.
“It’s basically saying you can do everything you feel like you can do and still come up short. But you won’t have regrets then.
“He’s walking you through high-level sport. To be at the very top, things we go through every single day are tough and crazy sometimes. Not a lot of people would know we go through so many different emotions.
“Then it’s dealing with them and being composed and we still have to perform regardless of what’s going on. He’s giving you ways to deal with that, so it helped me massively.”
Asked if he has brought any books with him, he said: “Yeah, I’ve brought three. I’ve brought Dan Carter’s one ‘The Art of Winning’. I’ve brought David Goggins’ ‘Never Finished’.
“The third one I’m getting my fiancee to bring it over, have you heard of the scientist Tony Robbins? It’s called ‘Life Force’.
“(Training goalkeeper) Tom Heaton was talking about Ronaldo at the table the other day and said that was the book he was reading and suggested to the Man United lads.
“I was earwigging and the stuff he was saying, what’s good for the body, and I was thinking, ‘if Ronaldo reads it, I’m going to have a little read and see if I can pick anything out!’”
Ronaldo’s quality, longevity and mentality is certainly something Gordon can learn a lot from, while the forward also uses meditation and visualisation to aid his performance.
“Deep thinking and really challenging the mind, I love,” he said. “Meditation and visualisation, trying to play the game out before it happens. I set my intentions so in a game things are a lot clearer and easier for me to follow.
“When you’re emotional and tired, you’re probably going to make worse decisions. So, if I can set my intentions and visualise them before the game, I can follow a clearer path to my intentions.”
Gordon visualises every game, from opponents to potential outcomes, and writes down short-term goals as “setting your intentions to who you want to be” makes it easier to achieve.
“I have a clear vision of where I want to get to, who I want to be, by a certain time,” he said.
“But with my goals, I always date them so ‘I achieve this by (date X)’. I write them as if they have already happened.
“That gives me no time to debate them and it’s just a clear path to follow.”
Gordon says he started doing it during last summer’s Under-21 Euros triumph having made a slow start to life at Newcastle.
“I went to the Under-21 Euros and my main goal was to win player of the tournament and to win the tournament, which I did,” he said ahead of Thursday’s second group game against Denmark.
“They were two massive goals that have gone on to change my life really, because my trajectory (since then) has gone upwards.
“Goal contributions, scoring goals, I had 10 for Newcastle, which I beat. My main last year was to be Newcastle’s most important player.
“So I’m never coming off, I want the manager to always believe in me, even if we’re struggling, I want him to value me and having me on the pitch.”