Books About Women’s Soccer | Book Riot

Briana Scurry is without doubt one of the most iconic U.S. Women’s National Team goalkeepers of all time, with two Olympic gold medals and one World Cup win to boast. Her prowess led the U.S. to victory on the unforgettable 1999 World Cup, the place she saved a game-winning penalty kick throughout an time beyond regulation shootout with China. But that’s not all. She additionally modified the way forward for the game, each by being the primary participant to come back out as homosexual and by publicly sharing her struggles within the aftermath of a concussion that took her off the pitch completely. Today’s concussion and harm protocols are largely due to Scurry’s advocacy, and she or he continues to make her mark as an assistant coach with the Washington Spirit. This memoir follows Scurry’s journey to the highest; her psychological, emotional, bodily, and monetary struggles after her harm; and her path to therapeutic. It’s a strong story with lots to say in regards to the previous and way forward for the sport.

Abby Wambach has a seemingly limitless checklist of recognitions and data, together with however not restricted to: two Olympic gold medals, one FIFA Women’s World Cup win, being named one among TIME’s most influential folks on this planet, and holding the file for second most worldwide objectives scored throughout girls’s and males’s soccer. But she’s a lot greater than only a catalog of her successes. In this memoir, Wambach reveals the world a extra multifaceted and sincere model of herself as somebody who has struggled even whereas on the high of her recreation, and as somebody who has been formed by and harmed by her fame. You’ll see Wambach’s highest highs and lowest lows in Forward, and also you’ll study that soccer is just one aspect of her story. If you need to find out about the actual lives and challenges of the world’s most elite soccer gamers, you’ll discover that and extra on this e-book.

Eniola Aluko had a powerful profession in soccer, incomes over 100 caps on the England Women’s Football group. But that was solely the start. Since leaving the pitch, Aluko has gone on to earn a regulation diploma, touch upon soccer on World Cup broadcasts, function sporting director for a number of girls’s soccer golf equipment (scorching tip: catch her on the HBO docu-series Angel City), and even turn into an envoy to the UN. This inspirational memoir reveals Aluko’s journey to such unbelievable achievements. She additionally shares a number of the knowledge she’s gained alongside the best way, notably referring to going through prejudice, talking out in opposition to abuse, and coping with profession setbacks. Aluko’s story is a captivating one, and the teachings she shares with readers have applicability far past the sphere.

Alex Scott had a powerful profession as a footballer, notably for Arsenal and on the England Women’s Team. She’s now a revered soccer commentator, and relying on the place you’re watching the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, you may hear Scott’s protection of the video games. In this deeply private and weak memoir, Scott asserts that typically the strongest factor you are able to do is let down your guard and discuss brazenly about your challenges. From her troublesome childhood to the sexism she faces as a public determine in sports activities, she shares the struggles and successes which have gotten her the place she is as we speak. If you’re not already a fan of Alex Scott, you can be by the point you end this inspiring and transferring e-book.

During the final Women’s World Cup in 2019, the U.S. Women’s National Team made headlines — and never simply by profitable. They introduced their calls for for equal pay and insurance policies to the pitch, calling on FIFA and different establishments to worth girls’s sports activities on the identical degree as males’s sports activities. They even received entire crowds chanting “equal pay” throughout matches. If you need to study in regards to the strides they made towards gender equality in sports activities and the way they’re nonetheless combating as we speak, try journalist Macaela MacKenzie’s e-book Money, Power, Respect. MacKenzie highlights the huge misogynistic panorama {of professional} sports activities and takes a have a look at what girls athletes are doing to alter it. She interviews soccer legends like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, in addition to stars from different sports activities like Allyson Felix and Billie Jean King. It’s a tough have a look at the issues at present going through girls athletes and a hopeful testomony to the work being carried out to pave the best way for future stars.

Soccer is a difficult and entertaining sport, however studying to play can even train you a large number about life off the pitch. After leaving her house nation of Jordan and in search of a spot to belong, Luma Mufleh discovered that soccer is an effective way to seek out neighborhood. She occurred upon a gaggle of refugee youngsters enjoying soccer in Georgia in the future, requested if she might be part of, and the remainder of her life was modified. Mufleh began a soccer group for refugee youngsters that became a household, a non-profit, a faculty, and a lot extra. In this memoir, she shares how soccer grew to become the guts of her work with younger refugees, to not develop their athletic prowess, however to assist type lifelong connections and construct character. It’s a transferring story filled with hope for a greater future, tied collectively by a love of soccer.

This YA romance is the really queer model of Bend It Like Beckham we’ve all been ready for. Vale has labored extremely exhausting to set herself up for a profession in soccer, however that might all go away due to a battle she had with Leticia, her largest rival, throughout a playoff recreation on the finish of her junior yr. A summer time at her childhood soccer camp looks like simply the best way to get herself again on observe — till she finds out she’s alleged to co-captain her group with Leticia. They’ll need to put their rivalry behind them in the event that they need to impress the faculty scouts coming to look at them play. But as they discover a solution to work collectively on the sphere, they uncover there’s one thing between them outdoors of the sport as nicely. It’s a pitch-perfect (pun meant) enemies-to-lovers romance that’s certain to knock you off your ft.

The solely factor that may make girls’s soccer higher, in my view at the least, is a bit queer romance. This upcoming romance by Meryl Wilsner is all the things I’ve ever needed in a love story. Grace is without doubt one of the most well-known soccer gamers within the U.S. with an extended file on the Women’s National Team. Phoebe simply received referred to as as much as the nationwide group for the primary time. They’ve clearly received chemistry, however can they hold their private entanglements off the pitch? Or even higher, is their chemistry simply what they should win? It’s received an ideal setting on this planet of soccer, a lot of enjoyable references for soccer followers, wonderful neurodiversity illustration, and naturally, steamy romance. And on high of all of it, the title is absolute perfection. Do not miss this e-book!