Sports Soccer

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.

For three months every year football clubs buy and sell people. They spend more than £4 billion a year on footballers, and for good reason; the right deal can help you win the game's top prizes while the wrong deal can cost you your job and bankrupt your club. It is a fast-paced, at times murky and cutthroat world worth billions, which largely operated behind closed doors - until Jim White and Kaveh Solhekol stepped in, that is. In Deadline Day, Jim and Kaveh, two of the world's leading transfer experts, take us behind the scenes of this uniquely tense, make-or-break element to the game.

Honest, funny, brave and inspired, Macca shares her story here for the first time: the family and first-believers who supported and challenged her from the beginning; the coaches and mentors who pushed her beyond her comfort zone and provided the blueprint of a champion; the rivals and teammates who transformed the Matildas into a global force to be reckoned with.

For the first time, Martin O’Neill reflects on one of the most varied and successful football careers in the British Isles. He made his breakthrough playing for Distillery in Northern Ireland before joining Brian Clough’s legendary Nottingham Forest team, becoming one of the few players who made the epic journey from the Second Division to the glory years: winning the First Division championship, two League Cups and back-to-back European Cups. O’Neill represented Northern Ireland over sixty times.

In 2014, the conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine began - and top football club Shakhtar Donetsk has since been in exile. This book tells their story; inevitably a story of the conflict and the recent Russian invasion but also a testament to the power of the game and the will of the players. It is ultimately a footballing story, exploring the experience and meaning of being a Shakhtar player through the lens of a country in the shadow of a huge aggressive neighbour.

The definitive, shocking account of the FIFA scandal - the biggest international corruption case of recent years, spearheaded by US investigators, involving dozens of countries, and implicating nearly every aspect of the world’s most popular sport, soccer, including its biggest event, the World Cup.

Over three seasons in England, Pep Guardiola has built something the Premier League has never seen before: a team that dominates games like no other, scoring goals and collecting points and trophies at record-breaking pace. Throughout that journey, the Spanish journalists Lu Martín and Pol Ballús have been embedded with the club, reporting this inside account of how a phenomenal team was constructed: from the recruitment of Guardiola himself, to the backroom staff that provide the platform for his team and the superstar players that have set a new standard in British football.

Downloaded over 10 million times a year, The Football Ramble podcast has established itself as the essential independent voice of football punditry. The weekly podcast has resonated with supporters around the world, and their sold-out live shows have been a massive hit with supporters. This audiobook is a collaboration by all four presenters and tackles the real issues from fans you won't see or hear on Sky Sports - or anywhere else, for that matter.

Ever wonder how players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Alex Morgan have been able to remain dominant for so long? Have you ever wanted to know the secret to getting a great night’s sleep every night? Do you sometimes feel like if you lost a bit of weight and gained some muscle that you would make more of a difference on the field? If any of these situations describe you, you are not alone. In this three-in-one bundled book, you get the following three books for the price of two.

Liverpool and Manchester. Two gloriously independent-minded, eclectic, culturally vibrant places—two cities, both alike in dignity. Yet the inhabitants dislike each other with a passion that is visceral. It is a divide that spans generations, across class and ethnicity. It is a divide that has grown over the years, largely driven by one thing: football. The dark, malignant loathing shared by the followers of Liverpool and Manchester United has seeped into every aspect of life in the two cities.

Learn to: Get a handle on soccer rules and regulations. Grasp the basic moves and plays. Improve dribbling, passing, and other skills. Appreciate this popular pastime. Learn the basics, improve your game knowledge, and reach your soccer playing goals. Do you get a kick out of soccer? Whether you're a youth league player, a soccer parent, or a World Cup fan, here at last is the book you've been waiting for.

Once Graeme Souness walked into the Ibrox Blue Room, nothing would be the same again. What followed wasn’t just a successful season for long-suffering fans. Nor was it something inevitable. What followed was a revolution. This is a story about change. About how Scottish football’s biggest club was transformed and how it then transformed Scottish football. About how old rules and traditions were ripped up, no matter the emotional cost.

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.

After being jilted in Kentucky, playing for Calverdale Ladies in England was a chance to escape and spend Christmas alone, avoiding my feelings. Which is how I’ve ended up snowed in at a Welsh pub with a retired rugby player who’s hot enough to thaw me out. But when the snow’s gone, so am I. I won’t let another man in, not even one as gorgeous as Geraint…

Even people who don't know football know Pelé. The best of a generation of Brazilian players universally acknowledged as the most accomplished and attractive group of footballers ever to play the game, he won the World Cup three times and is Brazil's all-time record goalscorer. But how did this man - a sportsman, a mere footballer, like many others - become a global icon? Was it just by being the best at what he did, or do people respond to some other quality?

Instantly acquire all the knowledge you need to pass as an expert in the world of football. Never again be found wanting when asked what Albert Camus said about the ‘beautiful’ game, why a surprising number of other famous writers and thinkers opted to play ‘between the sticks’, why a rotation system is not to be confused with a revolving door management policy and why an impressive collection of trophies is no way to describe the perma-tanned WAGs in the directors’ box.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Secret Footballer: What Goes on Tour by The Secret Footballer. Since his first book was published in 2012, The Secret Footballer has been able to take the listener behind the scenes of footballers' lives like no other player has been or will ever be able to do. Anonymity has been a potent weapon in revealing the real world of football stars, and five years on, he has now penned the work that all his fellow professionals have been urging him to do from the start: The Secret Footballer: What Goes on Tour.

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.

It was one of the most extraordinary takeovers British football has known. In February 2021, Ryan Reynolds joined with Rob McElhenney to buy Wrexham AFC, a non-league team in North Wales. Wrexham, a former coal and steel town dealing with its post-industrial legacy, suddenly found itself at the centre of global attention, with broadcast networks around the world descending to discover what was going on. Tinseltown tells the story of this extraordinary, unpredictable and often surreal football takeover and the remarkable events that followed.

When a man walks on to a pitch there’s always a chance something magic can happen, that’s what keeps us coming back…’In A Man Walks On to a Pitch, Harry shares a lifetime’s experience of obsessing over football, during which he has seen it all first hand - the good, the bad and the unbelievable. Harry started in an age where players were ordinary blokes who might live on the same street as you and earn a similar wage and now manages in an era of player power.