English Soccer

Luis “Lucky” Martinez is the new kid on River Valley Junior High’s JV soccer team. But his goalie skills aren’t the only thing being tested. When a school talent show opens for auditions, Luis will find out if he’s inherited his abuela’s musical skills. Can Luis juggle both, or will he have to choose which of his passions to save: soccer or music?

Imagine setting up your own Sunday League football club and seeing it rise to the lofty heights of the Champions League, taking all the risky, rewarding, sometimes dodgy and increasingly big money decisions along the way. Comedian and financial idiot Kevin Day and football accountant and financial expert Kieran Maguire have imagined just that with all the humour and savage insight of their massively popular The Price of Football podcast.

Over the course of 15 years, John Delaney ran the Football Association of Ireland as his own personal fiefdom. He had his critics, but his power was never seriously challenged until last year, when Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan published a sequence of stories in the Sunday Times containing damaging revelations about his personal compensation and the parlous financial situation of the FAI. Delaney's reputation as a great financial manager was left in tatters. He resigned under pressure, and the FAI was left hoping for a massive bail-out from the Irish taxpayer.

This entry in a brand new line of sports biographies from Matt Christopher takes listeners onto the field with a soccer legend Mia Hamm's speed, aggressive play, and ability to "read the field" helped her become the best women's soccer player in the world. Her stellar performance as a college, World Cup, and Olympic Champion made her a sports hero, and her story will inspire a new generation of young athletes. This comprehensive biography - with bonus photos and infographics - gives listeners an up-close look at one of America's greatest soccer stars.

Simon Jordan made his fortune building a mobile phone company from scratch. When he sold it for £75 million, he bought Crystal Palace FC, the club he'd supported as a boy, and led them into the Premier League. Ten years later, Palace was in administration and Jordan had lost nigh on everything. Be Careful What You Wish For lifts the lid on being the owner of a football club and how the game really works. Hopes and dreams sit alongside greed, self-interest, dodgy transfers, boardroom fights and dressing room dressing downs.

Norwegian international Erling Haaland is the rising star of Europe. Having already smashed Messi, Ronaldo and Harry Kane's record of quickest player to twenty Champions League goals, 'The Terminator' is proving to be a ruthless, efficient goalscoring machine. At such a young age, the world is his playground. Discover how he's caught the eye of the footballing world and whether he'll pip Mbappe to a Ballon d'Or!

Super Strikers: Amazing Stories of Soccer's Greatest takes you right onto the pitch with Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Haaland, and Mbappe. Discover their most unforgettable moments, jaw-dropping skills, and the secrets to their incredible success. Then, flip the book to Icons of Sports: Legends Versus Rising Stars, where you’ll witness thrilling head-to-head comparisons between the greatest legends and today’s rising stars across five sports.

Everything changed for Pistorius in the early morning hours of February 14, 2013, Valentine's Day, when he shot and killed his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, through a closed bathroom door, allegedly because he mistook her for an intruder intent on doing him harm. He was arrested and charged with premeditated murder, and overnight, the public's view of Pistorius turned on its head. Not since the O. J. Simpson case has a courtroom drama riveted global attention on one man's fate.

Sadio Mané is one of Liverpool FC's 'Fab Four'. Along with Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Xherdan Shakiri, Sadio's goals have helped make Liverpool the deadliest attacking team in the Premier League. Since he moved to the Premier League, Sadio has been setting the bar to new heights - from scoring the fastest hat-trick in history to becoming the most expensive African footballer ever. There is no stopping the Fab Four, and the sky is the limit for Sadio Mané.

This ambitious and fascinating history considers why, in the space of sixty years between 1850 and 1910, football grew from a marginal and unorganised activity to become the dominant winter entertainment for millions of people around the world. The book explores how the world’s football codes—soccer, rugby league, rugby union, American, Australian, Canadian and Gaelic—developed as part of the commercialised leisure industry in the nineteenth century.

How to Become a Professional Goalkeeper is the story of how I achieved my dreams of becoming a professional football (soccer) player, goalkeeper, even though I never played for any professional football academy as a child. I wrote this book to help inspire the next generation of young goalkeepers who are now battling to achieve their dreams of wanting to become a professional goalkeeper. And I am positive my story, and more importantly, my tips will open doors at professional clubs to give you an opportunity and will give you (or your goalkeeping child) the edge!

Barcelona and Real Madrid: two of the most powerful and popular clubs in world football, and one of the world's most bitter sporting rivalries. Going far beyond the boundaries of just sport alone, this is a rivalry at the heart of Spanish life, taking in politics and culture and splitting a country in two. El Clasico gets to the heart of that rivalry, investigating the intrigue, the larger-than-life characters, the key flashpoints and their consequences.

In this heartwarming and candid memoir, Tim Howard does something he would never do on a soccer field: he drops his guard. As fiercely protective about his privacy as he is guarding the goal for the US national team and for Everton in the English Premier League, Howard opens up for the first time about how a hyperactive kid from New Jersey with Tourette's syndrome defied the odds to become one of the world’s premier goalkeepers.

The US Women’s National Soccer Team has won three World Cups and four Olympic gold medals, set record TV ratings, drawn massive crowds, earned huge revenues for FIFA and US Soccer, and helped to redefine the place of women in sports. But despite their dominance, and their rosters of superstar players, they’ve endured striking inequality: low pay, poor playing conditions, and limited opportunities to play in professional leagues.

A player who couldn’t score. A bleak soccer future as a bench-warmer. An athlete who lacked confidence in his game. Are you or a loved one enjoying soccer, but can’t stand not being confident on what to do with the ball? Do you or a child have a problem getting shots and making them go in? Are you a parent or player that would love to dribble several opponents at once but struggle even beating one? This three-in-one bundled book contains the second, third, and fourth books of the Understand Soccer Series.

Sonny Bill Williams (SBW) is a once-in-a-hundred-year athlete with immense sporting talent in rugby league, rugby union and boxing. Sonny Bill has built an incredible career and sporting reputation across the globe. His athleticism has taken him from inner-city Auckland, where he grew up, to the highest sporting moments in Twickenham, Eden Park and Sydney's Olympic Stadium. But there is so much more to Sonny Bill Williams' life and journey than his on-field and in-the-ring triumphs.

Ruud Gullit knows better than anyone else that to understand soccer you have to understand strategy. When he started playing soccer, his only "strategy" was to get the ball, outrun everyone else to the other end of the field, and score. At first it served him well, but as he advanced through the sport, he learned that it takes much more than speed to make a winning team.

Cristiano and Leo is the fascinating account of the lives and rivalry between two of the best footballers to ever play the game, Ronaldo and Messi. The rivalry between Ronaldo and Messi has defined football to a generation of fans - everyone has an opinion on who is the greatest. Do you prefer Ronaldo, whose work ethic and physique have been honed for one purpose - scoring goals? Or Messi, whose superhuman natural talent means he can do the seemingly impossible with a football?

With breathtaking scope and unparalleled knowledge of the game, The Age of Football explores soccer's vital role in our social, political, and economic lives: its connections to social discord in the Middle East and political division in Europe; the reasons behind its surprising surge in popularity in China, India, and the United States; and its use (and misuse) in the global advance of equality and human rights. Goldblatt proves that whether you call it football or soccer, you can't make sense of the modern world without understanding its most popular sport.

After Jake Slater’s wife dies in a tragic hit-and-run, all he has left is his daughter, Piper—nearly lost, too, in a brutal custody battle with his wealthy in-laws. A year later, Jake reluctantly agrees to a reunion with the estranged family for Piper’s thirteenth birthday. Then a single gunshot rings out, and a new nightmare begins. Piper is kidnapped, and her cousin Caitlin is murdered. Caitlin’s cryptic dying words: Piper knows the truth.