Sports correspondent, unsuccessful novelist, accidental German sports literary journalist: the strange arc of Ronald Reng

Since the commercialization of professional sports, German sports have changed. The creative aspect of much of the writing has given way to a more to-the-point, factual style. There are exceptions, of course, and Ronald Reng is one. Formerly a sports correspondent for Germanspeaking newspapers in England and Spain, Reng aspired to be a fiction writer and wrote several novels that achieved little commercial success. By chance (after being asked by a goalkeeper to write his story), Reng tried his hand at what he calls narrative sports writing. Unlike his novels, the nonfiction book Der Traumhüter: Die unglaubliche Geschichte eines Torwarts (published in English as Keeper of Dreams: One Man's Controversial Story of Life in the English Premiership) was critically acclaimed and sold well. Reng has continued to write nonfiction books using the narrative style he adopted for his first novel. This study places Reng's writing in the context of sports literary journalism, looking first at the history of German sports journalism before briefly outlining the history of sports literary journalism. The inquiry concludes by examining Reng's writing in the context of Tom Wolfe's framework for the New Journalism. Much of the information is derived from primary research in the form of interviews with Reng, as well as other authors, including accomplished sportswriter and New Journalism pioneer Gay Talese.