The 2026 World Cup has sparked an unprecedented amount of soccer publishing for the Soccer America Library.
World Cup | Biographies/Memoirs/Players | USMNT | International | Fiction | Instructional/Tactics/Coaching | Soccer in America
World Cup
• The Big Bounce: The Surge That Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer” By Alan Rothenberg (Triumph Books)
Rothenberg was CEO and chairman of the USA-hosted 1994 FIFA World Cup and U.S. Soccer president in 1990-98.
Excerpts:
📖 The election that reshaped American sports: Alan Rothenberg on U.S. Soccer’s 1990 AGM
📖 Tales from the 1984 Olympics, which set American soccer on a new trajectory
• World Cup Fever: A Soccer Journey in Nine Tournaments By Simon Kuper (Pegasus Books)
It was before the 1994 World Cup that Simon Kuper delivered his debut book, “Soccer Against the Enemy,” which quickly entered the canon of soccer literature.
⚽️ SA Review: A considered and personal reflection of the tournament’s evolution
The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup By Jonathan Wilson (Bold Type Books)
The author one of the most acclaimed books on soccer tactics, Inverting the Pyramid, returns with a on- and off-the field history of what makes the World Cup the globe’s intriguing sports event.
• We Are the World (Cup): A Personal History of the World’s Greatest Sporting Event By Roger Bennett
Roger Bennett of The Men Blazers fame follows up on Reborn in the USA with this celebration of the World Cup from the 1970s onward.
Roger Bennett in SA:
⚽️ Roger Bennett on ‘American Fiasco,’ becoming enchanted with USA soccer, and the roller-coaster 1990s
Biographies/Memoirs/Players
• Landon: A Memoir By Landon Donovan (Page Two)
He hit the world stage with a Golden Ball-winning performance at the 1999 U-17 World Cup, then played at the U-20 World Cup, the Olympics and three senior World Cups, including the USA’s best modern era performance in 2002. But the USA’s first-round exit at the 2006 led to his first bout of serious depression. The book shares his candid reflections on mental health struggles and the search for peace off the field.
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• “You Can’t Get There from Here: My Soccer Journey from Derby to Detroit” By Roger N. Faulkner (2026). (Koehler Books). Available in hardcover and paperback.
As president of the Michigan Soccer Association, Faulkner spearheaded Detroit’s successful bid to host 1994 World Cup games at the indoor Silverdome.
Excerpt:
📖 The USA’s World Cup 1994 opener indoors and, after 44 years, a point!
• The Messi Effect: How the Global Legend Changed the Future of American Soccer By Paul Tenorio (St. Martin’s Press).
Publication date: June 2. Available for preorder.
Messi won every trophy of import for club and country, and along the way, he changed what people thought was possible in the game. Messi arrived in MLS in 2023 and Tenorio takes the reader inside the locker room and behind the scenes.
📖 Excerpt: Inter Miami players reveal Day 1 locker-room interactions with the global legend
• “From the Sandlots to the World Cup — INSIDE Seven Decades of American Soccer” By Joseph A. Machnik
Many have chronicled American soccer, but you’ll not find one with first-hand experience in so many aspects of it as Joe Machnik. They include serving as the USA’s goalkeeper coach when in 1990 it returned to the World Cup for the first time in 40 years.
⚽️ SA Review: An American soccer renaissance man releases his memoir
KYLIAN MBAPPÉ: The Definitive Biography By Julien Laurens (Pegasus Books)
In 2018, Kylian Mbappé at age 19 became the second teenager after Pele to score in a World Cup final as France lifted the crown. In 2022, he became the second player after Geoff Hurst to score a hat trick in the final. Author Julien Laurens had access to the superstar’s friends, coaches, and teammates.
USMNT
• The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts By Leander Schaerlaeckens (Viking)
Publication date: May 12. Available for preorder.
The longtime soccer reporter who teaches journalism and sports communication at Marist University delves into the past, present and uncertain future of the U.S. men’s national team.
• Sibling Rivalry: How Mexico and the US Built the Most Contentious, Co-Dependent Feud in World Soccer By Hal Phillips
Phillips investigates how USA vs. Mexico on the soccer field is influenced by the historically intertwined relationship of the “distant neighbors” that share a 2,000-mile border.
Hal Phillips in SA:
Good idea from Bad Bunny: ‘Together, We Are America’
International
• The History of the World in 12 Soccer Matches By Stefano Bizzotto (Melville House)
Publication date: May 19 (preorder)
The Italian sports journalist and commentator Stefano Bizzotto deploys soccer to deliver colorful accounts of historic events from around the world, featuring presidents, dictators and peacemakers.
Fiction
• The Last Amateur and Other Stories By Ian Plenderleith (Halcyon Publishing)
Plenderleith’s previous books include, Rock ‘n’ Roll Soccer, the unmatched, enlightening and entertaining account of the NASL
Excerpt:
📖 Managing Kids: It’s all about player power these days
Ian Plenderleith in SA:
⚽️ A soccer literature golazo: Ian Plenderleith’s short stories deliver the genre’s magic
Instructional/Tactics/Coaching
Put it on Frame: Stories and Strategies from Top Soccer Coaches and Experts By Glenn Crooks
Glenn Crooks shares soccer wisdom gathered from his career as TV/radio broadcaster, journalist, podcaster and coach in the first edition of “The Crooks Conversations.”
Glenn Crooks in SA: Glenn Crooks on his broadcasting career, New Jersey soccer culture, the youth landscape, and coaching
Soccer in America
Inventing the Boston Game: Football, Soccer, and the Origins of a National Myth (University of Massachusetts Press) By Dr. Kevin Tallec Marston & Dr. Mike Cronin
Who started soccer in America? A monument on Boston Common dates this founding first to the 1860s and credits the Oneida Football Club. Or does it? As detective historians, the authors investigate a most mischievous national narrative.