English Soccer

He was my best friend's brother. My neighbor. The one person I was never supposed to fall for, until lines got blurred-stolen kisses and lies told to the people we loved most.

In 1985, 40 hooligan followers of Stoke City FC experienced a riotous trip to Portsmouth - and the Naughty 40 was born. It became one of the most notorious soccer gangs in Britain. Mark Chester was a founder member of the N40. Already a hardened fighter, he had been expelled from school after an unsettled childhood and joined the Staffordshire Regiment, only to be discharged for misconduct. Stoke City's emerging "casual" mob became his family. "Right or wrong, I was ready to be a committed football hooligan," he says.

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.

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.

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!

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.

When five-year-old Michael Chaplin landed in a strange city of ships in the late 1950s, he looked in vain for something that would anchor him to it, make him feel at home. Then, one Saturday afternoon, it came: the roar of a crowd, and a football team to support. Young Michael became an avid Newcastle United fan, and has remained one - if sometimes disenchanted - for over 60 years. In this football memoir with a difference, the celebrated playwright and screenwriter tells the story of his six-decade love affair with the club, each chapter recreating an iconic Newcastle match

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.

The 1923 FA Cup final—aka the White Horse final—was the first football match played at the British Empire Exhibition Stadium. Although best-remembered for non-playing reasons that afternoon marked the historic opening chapter of the stadium’s long and eventful history, of the stadium soon to be known simply as Wembley. Nige Tassell chooses 100 matches—from the well known to the unusual—that have shaped Wembley's legacy and tells a lively and original alternative history of the past 100 years of football, and of Britain.

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.

Narcoball uncovers the incredible story of Colombian football during the early 1990s - shaped by drug lords, rivalries, and ambition. It uncovers a football empire backed by cartels - where victory was a currency of its own, and defeat, a matter of life and death. This is a different story of Pablo Escobar and his rivals.

On 27th February 2022, after 170 matches in charge, promotion to the Premier League and some of the most exhilarating football the English game has ever seen, Leeds United parted company with their most beloved and successful manager in a generation: Marcelo Bielsa. His parting gift was to embrace the crowds of adoring fans who turned up to say thank you as he left the club's training ground for the final time.

Jamie Vardy, the free-scoring talisman behind Leicester City's Premier League champion title, has become a modern against-the-odds footballing hero the world over. Rejected as a teenager by his boyhood club, Sheffield Wednesday, Jamie thought his chances had gone. But from playing pub football and earning £30 a week at Stocksbridge Park Steels while working in a factory, his impressive performances and hard work saw him rise again.

Clarkston, Georgia, was a typical Southern town until it was designated a refugee settlement center in the 1990s, becoming the first American home for scores of families in flight from the world's war zones; from Liberia and Sudan to Iraq and Afghanistan. Suddenly Clarkston's streets were filled with women wearing the hijab, the smells of cumin and curry, and kids of all colors playing soccer in any open space they could find.

No self-respecting Queens Park Rangers fan should be without this, the ultimate travel companion to QPR's away day fixtures. With over 40 years of following his beloved QPR up and down the country, Simon Ingram has created the ultimate fan's-eye history of the club.

From the earliest hints in the late 1960s that something remarkable was happening, up to Arsenal's ascendance as a global organisation, Black Arsenal is the first dedicated exploration of the club's relationship to contemporary Black identity and culture. It sees the club's affinity with Black identity transcend football and spread across cultures: in the media, music, fashion, politics and everyday social experiences.

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!

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.

I've always been bored watching my girlfriend's soccer matches. After a game, she invited some of her teammates over, and they made me into a cheerleader. From a dress to pom-poms, I had to do whatever they said. This short, gender-swap role play has feminization, first-time sissy action and lots of adult fun.

The story of one of the most recognisable and successful players in world football. Didier Drogba is renowned for his heading ability, sharp shooting and sheer strength. He has played for his native Ivory Coast and for clubs in France, China and Turkey, but it is as a Chelsea striker that he is best known. His feats with Chelsea, with whom he still plays, have made him a cult hero among supporters.