The wait is over! The World Cup has finally arrived! And if we put aside the politics, controversies and the frustrations and start enjoying the beauty and the power of the world’s game (even though sometimes it is difficult). Are you a fan of the sport like I am or are you a newbie and want to learn more about why football (or soccer) brings so much out of people? Good thing I created a list of book recommendations that is perfect for either the footie fan or a newbie. Ranging from well researched nonfiction books to entertaining comics, dive into this historic sport through these recommended reads:

We Are the World (Cup): A Personal History of the World’s Greatest Sporting Event by Roger Bennett 

Every four years, millions of viewers all over the globe are united in the drama of the world’s biggest sporting event. Geopolitical turmoil, popular culture, clashes of custom and style all weave together on the pitch, making the World Cup about so much more than soccer. For fans, it is a series of triumphs, heartbreaks, and shocking twists of fate. For the players, single matches, single plays, single glorious moments can be life changing. In We are the World (Cup), Roger Bennett imbues his unmitigated love for and dedication to the game into a deeply researched and deeply personal distillation of every tournament he has experienced from the 1978 to 2022.

As founder of MEN IN BLAZERS, the largest independent soccer focused media company in North America, Roger has been at the front of the curve as the popularity of soccer has sky-rocketed in the United States. We are the World (Cup) offers an in-depth history of how a sport that was mocked and dismissed in the 70s and 80s has become so energized, and the role that he and MEN IN BLAZERS have played.

Beloved for his wit, humility, and unadulterated love of the game that the rest of the world calls “football” is a celebration of our global culture and the power of sport to unite us all. (Credit: Dey Street Books)

Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era That Remade the World’s Game by Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson

For over fifteen years, almost any conversation about international soccer has always come back to two players—Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo—undoubtedly the greatest of their generation but with styles, attitudes, and fanbases that couldn’t be more different. For millions of people around the world “Messi or Ronaldo?” isn’t simply a barroom argument, or an affirmation of fandom, so much as a statement of philosophy, of values, of what global soccer is today and of what it will be tomorrow.

Now Wall Street Journal reporters and co-authors of The Club, Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, unite the stories of Messi and Ronaldo into a single modern epic of a global sports rivalry, detailing how one rivalry changed both the game and the business of international soccer—forever. Based on dozens of firsthand accounts and years of original reporting, Messi vs. Ronaldo weaves together the stakes, color, and characters at the heart of each man’s story, going inside the locker rooms and boardrooms where their legends were forged and revealing off-field drama as gripping as anything that happened on it. From their contrasting origin stories to their divergent career arcs and their conflicting reputations, these players have built their successes on opposite paths, yet each, in his own way, offers a riveting tale of triumph and excess. Taken together, their story embodies the astronomical growth of international soccer, how social media has revolutionized the power of sports celebrity, and how the desire to capitalize on the billions of dollars these players represent electrified some of the most storied clubs in Europe—Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Manchester United among them—and cost them almost everything.

With the 2022 World Cup almost certain to be the last for both of these figures, Messi vs. Ronaldo offers a deeply researched look at their legacy and grapples with the impact that their talents have had on the game for better and for worse. Much more than a retelling of the dual accomplishments of these great players, this definitive soccer biography is truly a biography of a rivalry, one that has become a crucial lens for understanding the past, present, and future of global soccer.

This definitive account of the modern game’s biggest sports rivalry explores:

• A Rivalry That Defined an Era: Uniting their contrasting origin stories and divergent careers, this is the complete biography of a rivalry that captured the world’s attention and transformed the global game forever.
• The GOAT Debate: Go beyond the barroom argument to see how the nonstop comparison between Messi and Ronaldo fueled their ambition, defined their legacies, and changed the conversation around international soccer.
• The Business of Soccer: A deeply reported look at how two players became a multi-billion-dollar industry, revolutionizing sports celebrity, and pushing storied clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid to the brink.
• Locker Rooms and Boardrooms: Based on years of original reporting, this book takes you inside the closed-door meetings and training ground clashes where their legends were forged. (Credit: Mariner Books)

Sol Goes for Goal! by Julio Anta and illustrated by Gabi Mendez 

Welcome back to Hillside Valley-this time it’s Game On for Sol!

Twelve-year-old Sol is a great friend, a model student, a beloved daughter and a star soccer player. At least that’s what everyone always expects of her. But when the soccer team captain Lily walks by, Sol starts to lose focus. What’s with this heart fluttering feeling she has around Lily?! And how can she stay the star player–the star everything–that people see her as if she can barely remember her name (much less how to play soccer) around Lily? Is Sol destined to let everyone down, including herself? Or can she figure out how to be the Sol she wants to be…on and off the field. Settle back into the cozy community of Hillside Valley in this second irresistible graphic novel! And don’t miss the first Hillside Valley Graphic Novel, Speak Up, Santiago! (Credit: Random House Graphic)

The Perfect Match by Adiba Jaigirdar

All is fair in love and rivalry…

Dina is done. She’s burn out after years in corporate London and now is working in her family’s struggling Bangladeshi restaurant. The last thing she expects is to be roped into coaching a football team of disadvantaged amateur players – or to say yes.

Maya is back. She could have had a brilliant career, but it all went…well wrong. Now she’s back home, back in her childhood bedroom. Her only escape is agreeing to coach her old secondary school’s team.

It doesn’t take long for them to bump into each other again and for as long as anyone can remember, Dina and Maya were rivals. But will the very game that tore them apart bring them back together? (Credit: Orion )

Outcasts United: The Story of a Refugee Soccer Team That Changed a Town by Warren St. John

Based on the adult bestseller, Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference, this young people’s edition is a complex and inspirational story about the Fugees, a youth soccer team made up of diverse refugees from around the world, and their formidable female coach, Luma Mufleh.
 
Luma Mufleh, a young Jordanian woman educated in the United States and working as a coach for private youth soccer teams in Atlanta, was out for a drive one day and ended up in Clarkston, Georgia, where she was amazed and delighted to see young boys, black and brown and white, some barefoot, playing soccer on every flat surface they could find. Luma decided to quit her job, move to Clarkston, and start a soccer team that would soon defy the odds. Despite challenges to locate a practice field, minimal funding for uniforms and equipment, and zero fans on the sidelines, the Fugees practiced hard and demonstrated a team spirit that drew admiration from referees and competitors alike.
 
Outcasts United explores how the community changed with the influx of refugees and how the dedication of Lumah Mufleh and the entire Fugees soccer team inspired an entire community. (Credit: Ember)

The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup by Jonathan Wilson

Since 1930, the World Cup has become a truly global obsession. It is the most watched sporting event on the planet, and 211 teams competed to make it into the 2022 tournament. From its inception, it has also been a vehicle for far more than soccer. A tool for self-mythologizing and influence-peddling, The World Cup has played a crucial role in nation-building, and continues to, as countries negotiate their positions in a globalized world.

The Power and the Glory is a comprehensive history of the matches and goals, the tales of scandal and triumph, the haggling and skulduggery of the bidding process, and the political and cultural tides behind every tournament. Jonathan Wilson details not merely what happened but why, based on fresh interviews and meticulous research. The book is as much about the legends of the sport, from Pelé to Messi, as it is about the nations that made them, from Mussolini’s Italy to partitioned Germany to controversy-ridden Qatar.

Brimming with politics, heart, and drama, on and off the pitch, The Power and the Glory is the definitive story of the greatest cultural event of our time. (Credit: Bold Type Books)

The Academy Series by T.Z. Layton

Born and raised in a small town, twelve-year-old Leo K. Doyle has never seen the ocean or stepped foot on a plane. But Leo is a star soccer player with big dreams in life.

Rock star, Olympic gold, dragon-slaying dreams.

While Leo longs to make the pros one day, he has no idea how to achieve this goal–until a professional scout pays a chance visit to one of Leo’s games and extends an invitation to try out for the London Dragons youth squad, known as the Academy.

Leo is stunned. The London Dragons isn’t just any old soccer team. It’s a world-famous English Premier League team. Soon Leo is off to a whole new country, embarking on the greatest adventure of his life. The downside? Only eleven players can make the team.

Eleven out of two hundred of the very best twelve-year-old players on the planet.

Along with the grueling competition, Leo must also face a bully intent on torpedoing his summer, a roomie who doesn’t know how to have fun, a terrifying camp director, and, most of all, Leo’s own lack of formal training and the fear he’ll never succeed.

By the end of the summer, Leo will become a much better player and forever changed by his experience. But will he be good enough to make the Academy? (Credit: Sourcebooks Young Readers)

My Beautiful Sisters: A Memoir of Courage, Hope, and the Afghan Women’s Soccer Team by Khalida Popal

A story of survival, sisterhood and the fight for feminism in the age of the Taliban.

In August 2021, Kabul fell under the control of the Taliban, a militant political and fundamentalist religious faction. For Khalida Popal, it signaled the beginning of the most important battle of an already extraordinary young life—to get female soccer players out of a city where they faced imminent threat of execution simply for playing sports.

Khalida first began playing soccer in a refugee camp in Pakistan after her parents fled Taliban rule. Returning to Afghanistan, she fell deeper in love with the freedom and comradeship soccer provides. As co-founder and first captain of the Afghan women’s soccer team, Khalida began using sports to empower young women, and was subjected to intensifying death threats in return.

Hounded out of her own country, she continued to support the Afghan women’s team, founding the organization Girl Power and exposing widespread sexual abuse of players. From her new home in Denmark, she watched Kabul fall and immediately knew the risk to the players still there. Assembling a small but mighty network of international allies, she began evacuating women whose lives were at risk simply for loving the sport she had done so much to promote. Her teammates. Her sisters.

My Beautiful Sisters is a gripping, important memoir, and a compulsively readable one—a harrowing yet ultimately heartening story of survival and sisterhood. (Credit: Citadel)

Soccernomics (2026 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Usually Win–And American Men Don’t (Yet) by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski

Why do clubs almost always lose money–and does it mean some will disappear? Why doesn’t America dominate the sport internationally? Do coaches actually even matter? These are the questions that most consume soccer fans–and Soccernomics holds the answers.

Soccernomics is a revolutionary way of looking at soccer that has helped to change how some of the world’s biggest clubs are run. Using insights and analogies from economics, statistics, psychology, and business to cast a new and entertaining light on how the game works, experts Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski reveal the often surprisingly counterintuitive truths about soccer.

This 2026 World Cup edition is updated throughout, including a brand-new chapter discussing MLS, Messi joining Inter Miami, and the rise of soccer in the United States. Soccernomics remains essential reading for anyone in search of a strategic, systematic perspective on the game. (Credit: Bold Type Books)

Blue Lock Series by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrated by Yusuke Nomura

Are you the world’s top egoist?

After a disastrous defeat in 2018, Japan’s soccer team struggles to regroup. But what’s missing? An absolute ace striker. The Football Union is hell-bent on creating a striker who hungers for goals and thirsts for victory, so Blue Lock — a rigorous training ground for 300 of Japan’s best and brightest youth players — is created. To survive this battle royale, the last striker standing will have to out-muscle and out-ego everyone who stands in his way! (Credit: Kodansha Comics)

My Greatest Save: The Brave, Barrier-Breaking Journey of a World Champion Goalkeeper by Briana Scurry with Wayne Coffey

A memoir of startling candor, My Greatest Save is a story of triumph, tragedy, and redemption from a woman who has broken through barriers her entire life.

Briana Scurry was a pioneer on the U.S. Women’s National Team. She won gold in Atlanta in 1996, the first time women’s soccer was ever played in the Olympics. She was a key part of the fabled “99ers,” making an epic save in the decisive penalty-kick shootout in the final.

Scurry captured her second Olympic gold in 2004, cementing her status as one of the premier players in the world. She was the only Black player on the team, and she was also the first player to be openly gay. It was a singularly amazing ride, one that Scurry handled with her trademark generosity and class–qualities that made her one of the most popular players ever to wear a U.S. jersey.

But Scurry’s storybook career ended in 2010 when a knee to the head left her with severe head trauma. She was labeled “temporarily totally disabled,” and the reality was even worse. She spiraled into depression, debt, and endured such pain that she closed out her closest friends and soccer soulmates. She pawned her gold medals. She walked to the edge of a waterfall and contemplated suicide.

It seemed like the only way out until Scurry made her greatest save of all. (Credit: Harry N. Abrams)

The Game Is Afoot by Elise Bryant

After rage quitting her job, Mavis finally has time to get all the rest she’s been putting off. Or she should have the time. Hypothetically. Except she’s taken on a new role: Supermom. Her hours are filled with chauffeuring her daughter, Pearl, around to her extracurricular activities, somehow ending up class mom, and…investigating another mystery?

When Coach Cole, the director of the kids’ soccer program, drops dead on a sunny Saturday morning, no one suspects foul play. However, the police soon discover something suspicious left on the field, making it clear that someone had it in for the coach. But who? Sure, parents got mad when he made their precious star athletes sit on the bench, but not that mad.

Mavis is determined to find out, even if it takes her into the dark, dangerous underbelly of gentle parents and MLM girlbosses. Plus, it’s an easy distraction from everything else going on. Like the panic attacks she keeps brushing off. Or the fact that she’s unemployed and totally lost as to what her purpose and path in life should be. And then there’s her ex-husband who’s back in town and doing everything she’s ever wanted, just as she’s beginning a new relationship. Mavis knows a murder investigation probably isn’t the self-care she needs right now. But how exactly are you supposed to take care of yourself when you don’t even know who you are anymore? (Credit: Berkley)

The Beautiful Game by Yamile Saied Méndez

At twelve years old, Valeria “Magic” Salomón is already the best soccer player her town has ever seen. She has talent in spades and an abuelo whose tough-love coaching and lessons about “strength and honor” have made her the star of the Overlords, the top boys’ team in the state.

Then everything changes at the State Cup semifinal. After an embarrassing moment on the field, Valeria’s team is unexpectedly eliminated and everyone who used to treat her as their secret weapon now sees her as their weakest link. Soon, she doesn’t have a team at all anymore. She’s not sure she has a relationship with her grandfather either.

Valeria’s a fighter, however. With the help of her grandmother and support of her cheerleader BFF, she finds herself on a girls’ team for the first time. But the Amazons aren’t exactly excited to have her there. After all, Valeria’s spent years ignoring their existence. With the next tournament looming on the horizon, Valeria has a month to figure out her place on her new team and learn how to play like a girl.

The award-winning author of Furia returns to the world of “the beautiful game” in this uplifting, heartfelt novel about family, self-confidence, and the power of second chances. (Credit: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

World Cup Fever: A Soccer Journey in Nine Tournaments by Simon Kuper

The World Cup is the biggest sporting spectacle on Earth—a chance every four years for the greatest players to win international glory, and a month-long media event that’s watched by an audience of billions.

But the tournament has changed beyond recognition since the inaugural event in Montevideo, Uruguay, in July 1930. What was once a semi-professional meeting beset by haphazard play has evolved to become a game of multinational buyouts, dubious ethics, and questionable aims—and the new era of soccer has much to tell us about the globalized world.

Simon Kuper is among the vanishingly small number of writers who have attended every World Cup since 1990. World Cup Fever is his journey to find the heart of soccer, through the nine tournaments he’s experienced first-hand—from watching matches in half-empty stands during Italia 1990 (a tournament that at times felt like a village fete) to witnessing the French triumph at home in 1998; South Africa’s national dream in 2010; and the troubling legacy of Qatar in 2022.

Told on the pitch, in the stands, in the pubs, and on the streets, this is the story of how soccer has changed the world. (Credit: Pegasus Books)

World Class by Jay Sandlin and illustrated by Patrick Mulholland

Football is a religion where Adrian “The Colombian Cannon” Molina comes from and with his wicked right leg, he has a clear shot to the promised land of the European Junior Leagues.

But when a football scout offers him a full scholarship to an elite prep school in London, the news seems too good to be true.

His enrollment hits a snag upon meeting the team’s star striker, Titan Evans.

Titan is everything Adrian is not; rich, powerful, connected, and with a hunger to dominate the school as well as the pitch.

The constant fighting, teasing, and bullying, brings about crippling anxiety of losing his spot on the team.

That’s until Luciano DeSilva takes him under his wing, and gives Adrian the confidence to be himself and value his position on the team. (Credit: Maverick)

One Goal: How Soccer Can Help Save the Planet by Heather Camlot and Drew Shannon

Our team spirit and passion for soccer can inspire action for a more sustainable future on — and off — the pitch.

Publishing in advance of the 2026 World Cup, One Goal is a timely look at how soccer players, organizations, clubs and fans are taking action to do better for the planet.

A college pitch in Nigeria uses the kinetic energy of players running over special tiles to power the field’s floodlights. South Africa uses local soccer fields to collect, store and clean rainwater for drinking. China built a high-speed bullet train to run between cities during the Asian Games, side-stepping high-emission air travel. Thousands of Belgian fans cycle to games instead of driving. New regulations about water breaks and game cancellations have been put into play to protect players from extreme heat.

From “drag and drop” stadiums, to seats made from recycled fish nets, to plant-based game-day food, soccer has an opportunity to lead by example and convince the global community that, by working together, we can create a better future. Includes a game plan of how readers can help, too. (Credit: Groundwood Books)

A Woman’s Game: The Rise, Fall, And Rise Again of Women’s Soccer by Suzanne Wrack

Women’s soccer is a game that has so often been relegated to the margins in a world fixated on gender differences above passion and talent. It is a game that could attract 50,000 fans to a stadium in the 1920s, was later banned by England’s Football Association grounds for being “unsuitable for females,” and has emerged as a global force in the modern era with the US Women’s National Team leading the charge.

A Woman’s Game traces this arc of changing attitudes, increasing professionalism, and international growth. Veteran journalist Suzanne Wrack has crafted a thoroughly reported history which pushes back at centuries of boundaries while celebrating the many wonders that women’s soccer has to offer.

With the enormous success of the World Cup, 82 million US viewers for the USWNT against Netherlands in the 2019 World Cup Final, enlightened and outspoken players like Megan Rapinoe helping raise the profile of the game across the world, and a fully professional top-tier league going from strength to strength in both the US and the UK, the time cannot be better for this in-depth look at the beautiful game. (Credit: Triumph Books (IL))

Relegated: One American’s Pints-and-Pies Journey from the Top to the Bottom of English Football by Todd Smith

Relegation, the devastating consequence English football teams face when they underperform, is something Todd Smith kept seeing in his own life. He grew up surrounded by soccer: his father was the head athletic trainer for the Minnesota Kicks of the 70s-era North American Soccer League, and Todd played into college. But while his family life was happy after that, his professional life didn’t go the way of his dreams. He spent two decades working tirelessly in blue-collar jobs while trying to break through as a writer. He often felt discouraged, like he’d never really made it, like he himself had been demoted to a lower league.

In Relegated, Todd embarks on a trip of personal and professional discovery. Looking for a change and a chance to write about something that really matters to him, he takes off for a multi-month, immersive expedition through the world and culture of English football. He visits not only the best clubs but also the most out of the way and forgotten ones. In these places, like the Old Spotted Dog Ground in East London, the port town of Grimsby (once voted the worst city in England), and Arbroath on the north coast of Scotland, he begins to understand what it means to be a “true” supporter of this historic and cherished game. He meets pub owners, groundskeepers, fan club organizers, and professional and amateur players who show him a deeper love of the sport. He learns how communities rally around a club, how much joy and suffering they can take, and how football clubs—even the lesser-known ones—can bond people together in memories that last a lifetime.

A heartwarming account featuring pints, meat pies, a rainbow of team scarves and banners, and some very colorful slang, Relegated is the story of a man looking to transform himself while discovering the true meaning of English football. (Credit: Gallery Books)

The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons

Fifteen-year-old Spencer Harris is a proud nerd, an awesome big brother, and a David Beckham in training. He’s also transgender. After transitioning at his old school leads to a year of isolation and bullying, Spencer gets a fresh start at Oakley, the most liberal private school in Ohio.

At Oakley, Spencer seems to have it all: more accepting classmates, a decent shot at a starting position on the boys’ soccer team, great new friends, and maybe even something more than friendship with one of his teammates. The problem is, no one at Oakley knows Spencer is trans—he’s passing.

But when a discriminatory law forces Spencer’s coach to bench him, Spencer has to make a choice: cheer his team on from the sidelines or publicly fight for his right to play, even though it would mean coming out to everyone—including the guy he’s falling for. (Credit: Dial Books)

Why Soccer Matters: A Look at More Than Sixty Years of International Soccer by Pelé

“I know in my heart that soccer was good to me, and great to the world….I saw, time and again, how the sport improved countless millions of lives, both on and off the field. For me, at least, that’s why soccer matters.”

The world’s most popular sport goes by many names—soccer, football, the beautiful game—but fans have always agreed on one thing: The greatest player of all time was Pelé. Before Messi, before Ronaldo, before Beckham, Pelé had a stunning twenty-year career, where he was heralded as an international treasure. His accomplishments on the field proved to be pure magic: an unprecedented three World Cup championships and the all-time scoring record, with 1,283 goals. Since retiring, he has traveled the world as soccer’s global ambassador, relentlessly promoting the positive ways soccer can transform young men and women, struggling communities, even entire nations.

This is Pelé’s legacy, his way of passing on everything he’s learned and inspiring a new generation. In Why Soccer Matters, Pelé details his ambitious goals for the future of the sport and, by extension, the world. (Credit: Celebra)

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