English Soccer

For legions of soccer fans, the players on the US Women's National Soccer Team are the game's standard-bearers. Together their accomplishments include four World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals. Within five years of their inaugural match in 1985, the team was the best women's soccer team on the planet. But its rise was neither easy nor harmonious. They faced discrimination and unequal treatment, most notably from their governing bodies, FIFA and U.S. Soccer.

The first edition of The Price of Football quickly established itself as the go-to guide to understanding football club finance for the serious fan. Kieran Maguire, one of the UK’s top football finance analysts, shows how professional clubs operate as businesses and explains, in non-technical language, how to read, understand, and interrogate club accounts.

Mesut Ozil is a midfield magician, casting an elegant spell over opponents and conjuring passes through gaps lesser mortals can't even see. After an eventful sojourn among the Galacticos of Real Madrid, he has savoured silverware at Arsenal, while in 2014 he lifted the World Cup with Germany. But his life and career have been a test of resilience. Growing up in Germany's Turkish community, he faced prejudice from those who claimed his dual identity would prevent him giving his all for the national team.

On March 21, 2015, Leicester City lost their sixth game in eight matches. Without a victory for two months, they were rock bottom of the English Premier League, heading for certain relegation to the lower division, and about to miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime financial bonanza of TV money and opportunity. As usual, London and Manchester would clean up, the rich would get richer, and the hopes of the small, overlooked, multicultural city would sink. But Leicester started to win. They stayed up; and in the new season they kept on winning.

Rebekah's first love is always solving a good mystery, but if she had to pick a second best pastime, it just might be soccer. And she's put in a lot of effort practicing her skills over the summer. It's time for the first practice,and she's ready to make her mark...that is, until she notices something very strange in the sky above her. Then again, it wouldn't be a regular day if there wasn't some sort of mystery to solve. She's on it! If you like funny mysteries, spunky and confident young characters, and stories with heart, you'll love the Rebekah - Girl Detective series!

Her body may still crave his, but US Soccer player Lauren Vorski knows better than to lust after Pete Kendrick. They may have had a smoking hot fling, but then he turned out to be her new head coach and had the nerve to cut her from the World Cup team. Now, her only mission is to prove how wrong he was about her by making the roster for the upcoming Olympics. If only she could stop thinking about how hot their time together was....

Mark Noble joined the West Ham Youth Academy in 2000 and immediately made an impression. Tenacious, aggressive, brave and full of character, he was the perfect embodiment of West Ham’s values and was seen as having a bright future in the Hammers first team. But nobody could have dreamt of Mark’s career at the club: the most appearances in the Premier League for West Ham United and, by the time of his retirement in 2022, the longest-serving one-club player in Europe – his achievements cemented him as one of the club’s modern legends and earned him the nickname ‘Mr West Ham’.

Graeme Souness is a Glasgow Rangers icon and a Liverpool legend in the same bracket as Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. His Football: My Life, My Passion is a perceptive and opinionated assessment of the game which has been his lifetime obsession, drawing extensively on his incredibly rich and varied experiences as a player, manager and pundit.

Do you want to learn the keys to improving your defensive game? Or looking for ways to solidify your team's defense? This audiobook is your answer. As was said by a great soccer manager, "Offense wins games; defense wins titles." This is the case with every level of the professional and amateur game in all countries across the globe. Although there is a correlation between scoring the most goals and winning leagues, it does not seem to be quite as strong as having a watertight defense.

Every four years, Americans turn their attention to the world’s game - soccer. As recently as 1998, the USMNT merely made up the numbers at the biggest sporting tournament of all, but once Bruce Arena took over the team, American soccer started to find its footing. In the 2002 World Cup, a highly-fancied Portugal team, featuring the great Ronaldo, lost to Arena’s US team in a shocking 3-2 victory, and but for a handball that wasn’t given, they could well have knocked off eventual winners Germany.

As Mexico has descended into a feudal narco-state - one where cartels, death squads, the army, and local police all fight over billions of dollars in profits from drug and human trafficking - the border city of Jurez has been hit hardest of all. And yet, more than a million people still live there. They even love their impoverished city, proudly repeating its mantra: "Amor por Jurez." Nothing exemplifies the spirit and hope of Juarenses more than the Indios, the city's beloved but hard-luck soccer team.

Kate Conner is an expert at multi-tasking. Wife, mom, demon-hunter. She can stuff hundreds of Easter eggs for the neighborhood fair and still have enough energy to pummel a demon back into the ether. But Kate's life has gotten more complicated. Her first husband has returned from the dead in the body of her daughter's chemistry teacher. Different body, same hot desire for Kate.

Once again, Kate Connor has a problem. Several, actually. For one thing, her daughter has figured out that mom is a demon-hunter - and wants to be just like her when she grows up. And there's that nagging suspicion that her dead husband has come back to life in the body of another man. Plus, her living husband still doesn't know her secrets. Not to mention the fact that she's acquired a mystical item that the entire demon community seems hell-bent on reclaiming.

After 14 years as a stay-at-home mom, Kate Connor has finally rejoined the workforce. But unlike most working moms, Kate can't rearrange her home obligations to fit the needs of her job. Well, not easily, anyway. And not without a few little white lies. Because the truth is, no one in her family has any clue that she's returned to the job of her youth. Which means no late nights working beside her husband at the kitchen table while the kids watch television. Although, when you think about it, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Soccer has been the world’s most popular sport for the last century, and an irresistible game for political and social leaders seeking shortcuts to the hearts of their people. Sometimes it worked, momentarily, but as renowned sports journalist Luciano Wernicke writes in this fascinating and original audiobook, the game and its glories have survived them all.

Telling the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team's story in expert prose, Pride of a Nation is a lavish tribute to one of the most beloved teams in sports, revisiting their historic four World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals, as well as unforgettable players across the generations, such as Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, Briana Scurry, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, Sophia Smith, Rose Lavelle, Catarina Macario, Mallory Pugh, and more.

Norwegian striker Erling Haaland is only in his first season at Manchester City and yet he has taken the Premier League - and world football stage - by storm. At the halfway point in the season, in just 20 games, the distinctive star has scored 25 goals, beating last year's PL golden boot winners Son Heung-Min and Mo Salah. He is well on his way to beating the record of 34 goals in a single season - a record no one has beaten in 27 years. Known for his speed, strength and goal scoring, Haaland is a fascinating character who doesn't fit the mould of a modern-day professional footballer.

Watford Forever is the remarkable account of Elton John’s ownership of Watford FC, and its transformational journey to the top of the First Division under iconic manager Graham Taylor, who was, in the words of award-winning journalist John Preston, “as traditional as Elton was unconventional.” Inspiring, funny, and ultimately heartrending, this is a tribute to soccer’s unlikeliest duo as Elton and Taylor—a straight-talking former fullback with literally no interest in rock music—both beat the odds and their personal demons to save a club and a community.

The first half of this delightful audiobook is packed with stories that will thrill football-loving adults. From epic comebacks to incredible goals, these tales will have you on the edge of your seat. And the best part? You can share them with your children in the second half of the audiobook, where they'll discover their own heartwarming soccer stories.

The contrast is striking. As the United States Women’s National soccer team has long dominated the sport—winners of four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals—the men’s team has floundered. They failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and three consecutive Olympics, and have long struggled when facing the world’s best teams. How could a country so dominant in other men’s team sports—and such a global powerhouse in women’s soccer—be so far behind the rest of the world in men’s soccer?