By Chris Vest

From Barnsley to Borneo: the Alan Vest Story

$34.99
$34.99

24 November 2026

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From a small Yorkshire village six miles outside Barnsley to the football grounds of Kuching, Alan Vest lived one of the most improbable journeys the game has produced.

A prolific non-league goalscorer who swapped the round ball for the oval one at a rugby-mad grammar school, Vest built a coaching life across three countries. He captained New Zealand, became Western Australia's first Director of Coaching, took charge of Newcastle KB United in the National Soccer League, and came within a whisker of the Socceroos job, a fixture of Australian football through its formative decades.

But it was on the island of Borneo that he wrote his most extraordinary chapter. Handed a relegated, unfancied Sarawak side, Vest turned them into champions of Malaysia and won the lasting reverence of a state that still remembers him as the "White Rajah" of its football. It is a bond so deep he asked for his ashes to be scattered along the Kuching waterfront where he took his morning walks.

Begun by Alan himself and completed by his son Chris from a lifetime of papers, match reports and the memories of those who played for him, From Barnsley to Borneo is a story of ambition, discipline and adventure, and of a love for the game that carried one man far further than he ever imagined.

More Information

  • Format: Paperback
  • Published:  November 2026
  • ISBN:  978-1-923236-63-9
  • ISBN: 978-1-923236-64-6 (ePub)
  • Weight: 0.4kg 
  • Size:  234x156mm
  • Pages:  220 (TBC)
  • Imprint: Fair Play Publishing

About the Author

Chris Vest grew up immersed in football, the son of footballer and coach Alan Vest, moving between England, New Zealand and Australia before the family settled in Perth, where Chris still lives with his wife Antonia and children Annaliese and Christian. A Bachelor of Business graduate, he has played, coached and followed the game all his life. When his father died leaving his memoir unfinished, Chris completed it from Alan's writings and memories, bringing an extraordinary football journey to life.

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$34.99
$34.99