After much anticipation, the day has officially arrived where South African rugby’s most capped men’s international player, Eben Etzebeth, has officially released his autobiography titled Unlocked.
The book tells the story of his early beginnings from growing up in the Cape Town community of Goodwood, representing the UCT Ikey Tigers in the Varsity Cup, signing his first professional contract with the Stormers, and many more milestone moments from his exciting career.
The 136 Springbok test cap player, nicknamed the enforcer due to his muscular physique and dominant presence, says that he never imagined that this would be how his life would turn out.
Speaking on Jacaranda FM, he jokingly admitted that while growing up, his desire was always to become a professional wrestler in the WWE.
“I was a big WWE fan, and it was one of the options. My father finally convinced me that WWE was fake and that they don’t really hit each other, so I decided rugby is the way to go, because that’s definitely not fake,” he jokingly revealed.
Meanwhile, the book not only gives readers a glimpse of his life through his lens, but also through the way that family and friends see him.
It includes a chapter titled “Love and Other Perspectives,” which captures many of these insights.
Speaking on this, he said, “I don’t think I was always the person who would say, ‘I want to write a book one day.’ I was more of a conservative kind who would not necessarily share my story with everyone, but then I thought, ‘Why not?”
“It’s something I can look back at and show to my children. How many people can say here is a book about Dad’s life where you can gain more insights into his career? And it was important for me to include the inputs of those closest to me and understand what they think of me,” he explained.
The book’s release comes just weeks ahead of his 34th birthday on 29th October and also in time for the birth of his and his wife Anlia’s second daughter.
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Taking to Instagram, Anlia expressed her excitement with a picture showing off her purchased copy of the book.
Captioning her post, she wrote: “Happy publication day, Hubby. I am super proud of you, my dear husband.”
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Also see: Eben Etzebeth reflects on highs and lows of stellar rugby career in new book
