Real Football

How Football Became Football traces football's evolution from a version of rugby played before a handful of friends to a spectacle played in packed stadiums before television audiences of 100 million or more. Organized by era, How Football Became Football shows how football’s rules, tactics, and equipment shifted over time, as did its coaching, officiating, and fan behavior. Richly illustrated and written in a fun, engaging manner, readers learn why maul-ins, puntouts and quarterback kicks disappeared from the game, as well as how helmets, end zones, hash marks, and penalty flags became ...

You think you know what it means to coach? Think again. In Confessions of a High School Football Coach, Michael DiMatteo pulls back the curtain on the real world of high school coaching — not the highlight reels or Hollywood versions, but the gut-level truth of what it's like to lead young men through wins, losses, egos, politics, and everything in between. With over three decades of firsthand experience, DiMatteo delivers more than just stories — he delivers hard-earned wisdom. From locker room lessons to parent-teacher battles, from championship highs to soul-crushing defeats, this is...

The perfect touchdown for young football fans: Bring to life the thrills, challenges, and triumphs of football, even if they are a beginner or a rising star in the game! Have you been on the hunt for a book that encourages your child's love for football and merges it with valuable life skills such as perseverance, teamwork, and dedication? Your quest ends here. Filled with gripping tales of triumph, teamwork, and heart, "The Most Amazing Football Stories for Kids" aims to ignite a lifelong passion in young readers for football while teaching crucial values. Perfect for 8 to 12-year-old ...

Founded in 1902 and granted a royal title by the king of Spain in 1920, Real Madrid Club de Fútbol went onto become the world's most valuable sports team (by revenue), most popular sports team (by social media followers), and most successful sports team (by number of trophies). But today, this legendary, member-owned soccer team faces significant challenges.

"Rising from Ashes to Champions: Zambia National Football Team – An Inspiring Story in African Football (2012)" is a gripping tale of resilience, destiny, and triumph. This book chronicles the extraordinary journey of the Zambia National Football Team as they defied all odds to win the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. Haunted by the tragic plane crash of 1993 that claimed the lives of an entire generation of Zambian footballers, the team carried the weight of history on their shoulders. Nearly two decades later, they returned to Gabon—the very place where their fallen heroes perished—to ...

The most popular college football team in the early 20th century belonged to an institution called the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Its story begins with Lt. Col. Richard Henry Pratt, a fierce abolitionist who believed that Native Americans deserved a place in American society. In 1879, Pratt made a treacherous journey to the Dakota Territory to recruit Carlisle's first students. Years later, three students approached Pratt with the notion of forming a football team.

A celebration of the beautiful game and its 100 greatest players, from the pre–World War II exploits of Dixie Dean to the modern-day genius of Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi These players left legacies, redefined the game with trademark skills, and grew into national icons. They have their...

Zinedine Zidane is more than a name; he is a symbol of artistry, intensity, and the contradictions that make football the world’s most human game. From the concrete pitches of Marseille’s La Castellane estate to the floodlit stages of World Cup and Champions League finals, Zidane’s story is one of genius under pressure and temperament on the edge. This definitive biography explores the rise of a boy from immigrant roots to the pinnacle of world football, charting every stage of his journey. It captures his teenage discovery at Cannes, his tactical education in Bordeaux, and his ...

I don't think I can sink any lower. Somehow I've ended up blackmailing a girl into pretending to be my girlfriend. Let me back up. I've known Charity since high school. Well, we went to the same exclusive prep school, anyway. We weren't friends, though. Now we're at the same university, and her friend group keeps crossing paths with mine, much to her obvious dismay. Given how vocal she is about disliking me, it's become a hobby of mine to needle her more anytime the opportunity presents itself.

Quinn is finally enjoying the view from her executive office. Her new position as CMO of a billion-dollar tech company keeps her busy enough to avoid the guilt and regret she's carried around since the loss of her mother. No one else will see the monster she sees in the mirror as long as she keeps her head buried in her work. No one until Cody Kartlin comes barreling into the picture, determined to earn her heart by proving that when it comes to high-powered careers—real men aren't afraid to let a woman take the lead.

From the shattered streets of war-torn Croatia to the floodlit finals of the world’s greatest stadiums, Luka Modrić: The Captain from the Ruins is the definitive biography of one of football’s most extraordinary figures. Born in Zaton Obrovački during the Croatian War of Independence, Modrić’s earliest memories were framed by displacement, scarcity, and the echoes of conflict. Yet amidst rubble and uncertainty, he forged the skills and resilience that would carry him from hotel car parks to Champions League glory. This book traces his journey in vivid detail: the improvised pitches...

Jude Bellingham’s rise is not just the story of a young footballer but a redefinition of what midfield leadership means in the modern game. From the uneven pitches of Stourbridge to the world stage at Real Madrid, his journey embodies resilience, intelligence, and tactical mastery. This book traces his development with unmatched depth, following his early academy days at Birmingham City, his breakthrough at Borussia Dortmund, and his transition into the global spotlight as one of the most influential players of his generation. Readers are taken inside the intensity of his Championship ...

JüKlopp's coaching career began in the German second tier at the unfashionable club of FSV Mainz 05, whom he steered to the Bundesliga for the first time in forty-one years. In 2008, he joined Borussia Dortmund, where he achieved back-to-back league titles and took the club to the UEFA...

* Which England player found a way to cheat in the fat testing before the 1987 World Cup? * How did Fiji manage to get themselves to the World Cup despite all the planes in and out of the country being grounded? *Which French player sat on the bench smoking a cigarette while his team won a place in the 1999 final? Real Men Drink Aftershave is the behind-the-scenes story of the first 20 years of the Rugby World Cup: the funny, the irreverent and the quite unbelievable players' tales about what really happened. It tells the story of the biggest change in the history of modern sport - as rugby...

A New York Times bestselling and award-winning journalist uses cutting-edge sports research to make the case for why being a fan is good for us individually and is a force for positive change in our society. Larry Olmsted’s writing and research have been called “eye-opening” (People)...

A Black Minneapolis cop and inner-city football coach faces racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd inflames his city and forces him to explore the tensions in the neighborhood where he grew up. Charles Adams is a product of the Minneapolis’s North Side, the city’s poorest...

From the day Princeton played the first intercollegiate game in 1869, these major schools of the northeast - Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale - shaped football as we now know it. In this rich history, Bernstein shows that much of the culture that surrounds American football, both good and bad, has its roots in the Ivy League.

INSPIRADA EN HECHOS REALES (Parte de las regalías de esta obra de ficción serán para apoyar a las jugadoras del Combinado Nacional de las Guerreras Jaguar A.C. en su participación en los encuentros deportivos internacionales en 2025.) Durante la temporada regular 2024-2025, el Ministerio Nacional del Deporte y la Liga de Football Americano A.C. fueron sacudidos por un crimen atroz en las inmediaciones del campo de entrenamiento de las Vaqueritas de Nuevo Nativitas. Lolita “Furia” Cortez, una de las jugadoras más destacadas, fue brutalmente asesinada. Su compañera de equipo, la ...

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.

The Wizards FC was a team of former school friends who - with the help of a few star ringers - slogged their way through mud, skinheads, and Staffordshire bull terriers to win the Edmonton Sunday League. Team captain Ewan Flynn brings alive a world of young men giving it their all on sloping pitches a million miles from the glamour of the Premier League, and officials who volunteer to maintain some sort of order. Along the way, he charts the bittersweet stories of mates who brought success to the Wizards.