The Football (Soccer) category has 95 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 254 ratings. The most-rated is Alex Ferguson.
Forward
Summary
Abby Wambach has always pushed the limits of what is possible. Named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of 2015, the iconic soccer player captured the nation's heart when she led her team to its recent World Cup championship. Admired for her fearlessness and passion, Abby is a vocal advocate for women's rights and equal opportunity, pushing to translate the success of her team to the real world. She has become a heavily requested speaker to a wide a range of audiences, from college students to executives at Fortune 500 companies. In Forward, Abby recounts her own decisions, wins, and losses and the pivotal moments that helped her become the world-class athlete and leader she is today. Wambach's book goes beyond the soccer field to reveal a soulful person grappling with universal questions about how we can live our best lives and become our truest selves. Written with honesty and heart, Forward is an inspiring blueprint for individual growth and a rousing call to action.
©2016 Abby Wambach (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers
Alex Ferguson
Summary
Meet the man who helmed Manchester United for 27 years. A tour de force in the world of football, Alex Ferguson wrote this book for his fans, addressing personal feuds, triumphs and highlights of his life on the pitch. A must-listen for football fanatics around the world. Revised and updated with new material from the paperback edition. Includes a prelude read by Sir Alex Ferguson. Sir Alex Ferguson's compelling story is always honest and revealing he reflects on his managerial career that embraced unprecedented European success for Aberdeen and 26 triumphant seasons with Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson's best-selling autobiography has now been updated to offer reflections on events at Manchester United since his retirement as well as his teachings at the Harvard Business School, a night at the Oscars and a boat tour round the Hebrides, where he passed unrecognised. The extra material adds fresh insights and detail on his final years as United's manager. Both the psychology of management and the detail of football strategy at the top level can be complex matters but no-one has explained them in a more interesting and accessible way for the general reader than Sir Alex does here. My Autobiography is revealing, endlessly entertaining and above all inspirational. The reader James Macpherson most notably appeared in 'Taggart' as DCI Mike Jardine, and has also read the audiobook editions of Ian Rankin's Rebus series and Billy Connolly's Route 66.
©2013 Alex Ferguson (P)2013 Hodder & Stoughton
Wenger
Summary
In Wenger: My Life and Lessons in Red and White, world-renowned and revolutionary soccer coach Arsène Wenger finally tells his own story for the very first time. Wenger opens up about his life, sharing principles for success on and off the field with lessons on leadership, personal development, and management. This book charts his extraordinary career, including his rise from obscurity in France and Japan to his 22 years at the helm of Arsenal Football Club. Covers the years of controversy that led up to his resignation in 2018 and his current seat as chief of global football development for FIFA Wenger offers studious reflections on the game and his groundbreaking approach to motivation, mindset, fitness, and the winning edge Wenger popularized the attacking approach and belief that the game should be entertaining Among the most successful managers of all time, Wenger, affectionately nicknamed "The Professor", has won multiple championships and run one undefeated and unmatched English Premier League season This is a must-listen for Arsenal fans, soccer fans, athletes, trainers, business leaders, and anyone seeking the tools for success in work and life. It's the story of one of the most revered and successful coaches - and his tactics and vision - in the world's largest sport. Makes a great gift for diehard soccer fans around the world. Add it to the audiobook "shelf" with books like Alex Ferguson: My Biography by Alex Ferguson, Beckham: Both Feet on the Ground: An Autobiography by David Beckham and Tom Watt, and Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 Arsène Wenger (P)2020 Chronicle Prism
Zonal Marking
Summary
A mazy dribble through the recent history of European soccer, showing how shifting styles and influence have shaped the game. In the early 1990s, the Dutch footballing philosophy was worshiped across the continent. Then the baton passed to the Italians, who clearly boasted Europe's strongest league. But when France started winning everything at international level its national academy became the template for others, until suddenly, almost out of nowhere, Europe's most revered player and manager both hailed from Portugal. Next, Barcelona and Spain won everything during a very obvious four-year period of dominance, before tiki-taka's decline meant Bayern and Germany took control. Finally, Europe's most successful coaches found themselves competing in England, introducing a brilliant cacophony of styles to the Premier League. Zonal Marking is a glorious travelogue through soccer's triumphant styles and characters.
©2019 Michael Cox (P)2019 Hachette Audio
Leading
Summary
After an astonishing career - first in Scotland and then over 27 years with Manchester United Football Club - Sir Alex Ferguson delivers Leading, in which the greatest soccer coach of all time will analyze the pivotal leadership decisions of his 38 years as a manager and, with his friend and collaborator Sir Michael Moritz, draw out lessons anyone can use in business and life to generate long-term transformational success. From hiring practices to firing decisions, from dealing with transition to teamwork, from mastering the boardroom to responding to failure and adversity, Leading is as inspiring as it is practical and a go-to reference for any leader in business, sports, and life.
©2015 Alex Ferguson and Michael Moritz (P)2015 Hachette Audio
I Think, Therefore I Play
Summary
Andrea Pirlo is one of the finest footballers of his generation - a World Cup and Champions League winning playmaker who has redefined his position at the base of midfield, and one of the most deadly free-kick takers the game has known. This is his story, in his words. It is written with a level of humour and insight which confound his image as a dead-eyed assassin on the field of play. All the big names are in there: Lippi, Ancelotti, Conte, Maldini, Shevchenko, Seedorf, Buffon, Kaka, Nesta, Balotelli, Costacurta, Gattuso, Berlusconi and Ronaldo ('the real one'). But they're not always in their work clothes. We hear Berlusconi playing the piano and telling 'various types of jokes' at Milan's training ground. We see Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi drawing Nesta's ire as they take him on a mystery tour of the German countryside in a hire car days before a World Cup semifinal. And we smell the aftermath of Filippo Inzaghi's graphically described prematch routine. With the 2014 World Cup being his last international tournament, this is a timely salute to a special talent who may yet have one final chapter left to write.
©2014 Andrea Pirlo (P)2017 Audible, Ltd
I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Summary
'Guardiola has no balls. He drove me like a Fiat...I'm a Ferrari', Zlatan Ibrahimovic - professional football's most mercurial player, Swedish national hero, tabloid fixture, fashion icon, modern-day philosopher and black belt in Taekwondo. Born to a Muslim father from Bosnia, and a Catholic mother from Croatia, Zlatan recounts his extraordinary life story, from his poverty-stricken upbringing as an immigrant in Malmö, Sweden, to becoming one of the world's most sought-after and expensive players, gracing Europe's finest clubs, from Ajax to Juventus, Internazionale to Barcelona, Milan to Paris Saint-Germain, and now Manchester United. I Am Zlatan reveals a rare and ferocious intelligence, willpower and God-given talent most recently exhibited when Zlatan scored all four goals for Sweden in a 4-2 victory against England. His fourth goal, a 30-yard overhead kick with his back to goal is widely regarded as one of the greatest goals of all time. The BBC described it as a goal that 'combined unfathomable imagination and expert technique'.
©2013 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (P)2016 Penguin Books Ltd.
Bring the Noise
Summary
Jürgen Klopp'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 41 years. In 2008, he joined Borussia Dortmund, where he achieved back-to-back league titles and took the club to the UEFA Champions League final. He left Germany for one of the England's most challenging jobs: to manage Liverpool, a once-mighty club that had not managed sustained success since the 1980s. It was not a task for the fainthearted. Anfield, Liverpool's home, is a temple to flamboyant attacking soccer powered by passion. In Klopp, Liverpool finally found a manager who embodied the essence of the club. Klopp is dynamic, expressive, restless, driven - he feels every move and play, every tactical shift, every contact on the field. His eyes betray a wild ecstasy and agony as his team thrives or falls. His game plan demands relentless commitment - the famous gegenpress - and he is one of the great personal motivators in all sport. Raphael Honigstein, author of Das Reboot and Budesliga correspondent for the Guardian, has interviewed Klopp and followed his career since his early years, and better than anyone knows how to "bring the noise" to his subject.
©2018 Raphael Honigstein (P)2018 Hachette Audio
Pep Guardiola
Summary
For three extraordinary seasons at Bayern Munich, Marti Perarnau was given total access around the German super club - to its players, its backroom staff, its board members and, above all, its manager, Pep Guardiola. In the follow-up to his critically acclaimed account of Guardiola's first full season at Bayern, Pep Confidential, Perarnau now lifts the lid on the Catalan's whole tenure in Bavaria. Pep Guardiola: The Evolution takes the listener on a journey through three action-packed seasons as Bayern smashed domestic records yet struggled to emulate that dominance in Europe, analysing Guardiola's management style through key moments on and off the field. Perarnau reveals how Guardiola improved as a manager at Bayern despite failing to land the ultimate prize in European football, examines his decision to leave Germany to take up the challenge at Manchester City and how his managerial style will continue to evolve in the Premier League. This is more than the story of three seasons with one of the biggest clubs in the game. It is a portrait and analysis of a manager and the footballing philosophies that have beguiled the world.
©2016 Marti Perarnau (P)2017 Audible, Ltd
The Second Half
Summary
Narrated by Stephen Hogan and introduced by Roy Keane. In an 18-year playing career for Cobh Ramblers, Nottingham Forest, and Manchester United (under Sir Alex Ferguson) and Celtic, Roy Keane dominated every midfield he led to glory. Aggressive and highly competitive, his attitude helped him to excel as captain of Manchester United from 1997 until his departure in 2005. He played at an international level for nearly all of his career, representing the Republic of Ireland over 14 years, mainly as team captain, until an incident with national coach Mick McCarthy resulted in Keane's walk-out from the 2002 World Cup. Since retiring as a player, Keane has managed Sunderland and Ipswich and become a notably contrarian pundit for ITV. He is assistant (to Martin O'Neill) manager of the Ireland team. The TV analyst reflects the manager, the player, and the man himself, the unique Roy Keane - Keano. As part of a tiny elite of football players, Roy Keane has lived and experienced what very few people could ever imagine. His status as one of football's greatest stars is undisputed, but what of the challenges beyond the pitch? How did he succeed in coming to terms with life as a former Manchester United and Ireland leader and champion, reinvent himself as a broadcaster, and cope with the psychological struggles this entailed? This book is a personal odyssey, a blend of anecdote and reflection which re-evaluates the meaning of success. In following his personal struggle to reinvent himself, confronting a few demons along the way, The Second Half blends memoir and motivational writing in a manner which both disquiets and reassures in Roy Keane's original voice, in a stunning collaboration brilliantly captured with Man Booker Prize-winning writer Roddy Doyle.
©2014 Roy Keane and Roddy Doyle (P)2014 Orion Publishing Group
My Story
Summary
Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of My Story by Steven Gerrard, read by Michael Ryan. Steven Gerrard is the former captain of Liverpool football team and of the England national football team and is the only player ever to have scored in a FA cup final, a league cup final, a UEFA cup final and a champion's league final. His entire career, since 1998, has been spent at Anfield with Liverpool. In this audiobook he charts his full playing career, shedding light on the defining games, his life off the pitch as well as the players and managers he's encountered. Explosive, controversial and searingly honest, this will be the last word from an era-defining player.
©2015 Steven Gerrard (P)2015 Penguin Books Limited
Pep Guardiola
Summary
This fully updated edition of the international best seller includes Pep Guardiola's Bayern years and his decision to join Manchester City. Pep Guardiola is the most successful and sought after football coach in the world. After being appointed first-team manager in 2008, he transformed Barcelona into arguably the greatest club side of all time, winning an unprecedented 13 trophies in four years. Following a shock sabbatical from the game, he replaced Jupp Heynckes at the helm of Bayern Munich at the start of the 2013-14 season, twice winning the Double in his three years in charge. He then announced that he would be joining Manchester City for the 2016-17 season, thereby beginning what could prove to be his greatest challenge yet: turning them into a team that consistently wins in the most difficult of leagues and a regular challenger in the Champions League...and doing it the Guardiola way. Guillem Balagué has followed Pep's career from the outset and has had direct access to the man and his inner circle. This, then, is the definitive portrait of Pep Guardiola and his relentless pursuit of footballing perfection.
©2012 Guillem Balague (P)2018 Orion Publishing Group
The Club
Summary
This is a sports and business tale of how money, ambition, and 25 years of drama remade an ancient institution into a 21st-century entertainment empire. No one knew it when their experiment began, but without any particular genius or acumen, the motley cast of billionaires and hucksters behind the modern Premier League struck gold. Pretty soon, everyone wanted to try their luck, from Russian oligarchs to Emirati sheikhs, American tycoons, and Asian Tiger titans. Some succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Some lost everything. Today, players are sold for tens of millions, clubs are valued in the billions, and games are beamed out to nearly 200 countries, all while the league struggles to preserve its English soul. Deeply researched and drawing on 100 exclusive interviews, including the key decision makers at every major English team, The Club is the definitive and wildly entertaining narrative of how the Premier League took over the world.
©2018 Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
My Turn: The Autobiography
Summary
Johan Cruyff is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in football history. Throughout his playing career, he was synonymous with Total Football, a style of play in which every player could play in any position on the pitch. Today his philosophy lives on in teams across Europe, from Barcelona to Bayern Munich, and players from Lionel Messi to Cesc Fabrecas. My Turn tells the story of Cruyff's life starting at Ajax, where he won eight national titles and three European Cups before moving to Barcelona, where he won La Liga in 1973, his first season, and was named European Footballer of the Year. He won the Ballon d'Or three times and led the Dutch national team to the final of the 1974 World Cup, famously losing to West Germany and receiving the Golden Ball as the player of the tournament. While on the field Cruyff was in total control, off the field his life was more turbulent, with a kidnapping attempt and bankruptcy. After retiring in 1984, he became a hugely successful manager of Ajax and then Barcelona, where he won the Champions league with a young Pep Guardiola in his team. In 1999 Cruyff was voted European Player of the Century and came second behind Pelé in the World Player of the Century poll. In March 2016 Cruyff died after a short battle with lung cancer, bringing world football to a standstill in an outpouring of emotions. Johan Cruyff was a brilliant teacher and analyst of the game he loved, and My Turn is his legacy.
©2016 Johan Cruyff (P)2016 Macmillan Digital Audio
Pep Confidential
Summary
Martí Perarnau was given total access to Bayern Munich during season 2013-14. This audiobook represents the first time in the modern era that a writer has got this close to one of the elite teams of world football. At the invitation of Pep Guardiola, he shadowed the Catalan, his staff and his superstar players during training and on matchdays. Bayern smashed domestic records on their way to the double, but were humiliated by Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final. Perarnau was with them every step of the way. Perarnau is with Guardiola as he is courted by the world's greatest clubs during his sabbatical in New York. We hear Guardiola explain in detail the radical tactical moves which transform Bayern's season and reprogramme the players who will win the World Cup with Germany. Perarnau talks exclusively and in fascinating detail with players such as Arjen Robben, Manuel Neuer, Philipp Lahm, Thiago Alcântara and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Pep Confidential is much more than the story of a season it is also a lasting portrait of one of the greatest coaches in sport.
©2014 Marti Perarnau (P)2017 Audible, Ltd
Inverting the Pyramid
Summary
"An outstanding work...the [soccer] book of the decade." (Sunday Business Post) Inverting the Pyramid is a pioneering soccer book that chronicles the evolution of soccer tactics and the lives of the itinerant coaching geniuses who have spread their distinctive styles across the globe. Through Jonathan Wilson's brilliant historical detective work, we learn how the South Americans shrugged off the British colonial order to add their own finesse to the game; how the Europeans harnessed individual technique and built it into a team structure; how the game once featured five forwards up front, while now a lone striker is not uncommon. Inverting the Pyramid provides a definitive understanding of the tactical genius of modern-day Barcelona, for the first time showing how their style of play developed from Dutch "Total Football", which itself was an evolution of the Scottish passing game invented by Queens Park in the 1870s and taken on by Tottenham Hotspur in the 1930s. Inverting the Pyramid has been called the "Big Daddy" (Zonal Marking) of soccer tactics books; it is essential for any coach, fan, player, or fantasy manager of the beautiful game.
©2018 Jonathan Wilson (P)2018 Hachette Audio
The Fall of the House of FIFA
Summary
In 2015, FIFA - the multibillion-dollar governing body of the world's most loved sport - was brought down by allegations of industrial-scale bribes, kickbacks, money laundering, racketeering, and tax evasion. Beginning with early morning raids in Zurich and the indictment of 27 executives by the US Department of Justice, the rottenness at the core of FIFA seemed to extend throughout all of soccer, from the decision to send the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar to lesser known cases of embezzlement from Trinidad to South Africa. David Conn writes the definitive account of FIFA's rise and fall, covering in great detail the corruption allegations and the series of scandals that continued to shake the public's trust in the organization. The Fall of the House of FIFA situates FIFA's unraveling amid revealing human portraits of soccer legends such as Michel Platini and Franz Beckenbauer and features an exclusive interview with former president Sepp Blatter. Even as he chronicles the biggest sport scandal of all time, Conn infuses the book with a passionate love of the game, delivering an irresistible audiobook.
©2017 David Conn (P)2017 Hachette Audio
How to Watch Soccer
Summary
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. He worked his way from the Dutch junior leagues all the way to the legendary AC Milan, eventually retiring from the field to be a trainer, then a manager, and finally a commentator. Each step came with its own lessons, and its own unique perspective on the game. Having looked at soccer through just about every lens possible, Gullit is now sharing his own perspective. Most spectators simply watch the ball, but in How to Watch Soccer, Gullit explains how to watch the whole game. He shows how every part of a match, from formations to corner kicks, all the way down to what the players do to influence the referees, is important. This exhaustive guide will change the way even the most die-hard fan watches the beautiful game.
©2016 Ruud Gullit; translation copyright 2016 by Sam Herman (P)2017 Tantor
Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl
Summary
Written by Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You’re a Girl is one of the most inspirational stories ever written for the female athlete. Coaches and teams of all sports – from soccer to golf to equestrian – have embraced this book as the foundation for a new brand of female competitor. Everything Your Coach Never Told You isn’t a soccer book, it’s a life book filled with competitive lessons that most girls never get the chance to hear. The edgy and passionate voice of Don Bratschie makes this audio-book jump to life with stories of a small-college soccer team that refused to conform to the warm and fuzzy image of female athletes. Listeners will join their remarkable journey from doormat to champions and feel as if they are right there in the locker room on game day, listening to a coach driving them forward into battle.
©2014 Daniel Blank (P)2015 Daniel Blank
Brave New World
Summary
The exclusive behind-the-scenes story of the Mauricio Pochettino revolution at Spurs, told in his own words. Since joining the club in 2014, Mauricio Pochettino has transformed Tottenham from underachievers into genuine title contenders. In the process, he has marked himself out as one of the best young managers in the world, more than holding his own against the Premier League's established heavyweights. He has done so by promoting an attacking, pressing style of football and by nurturing homegrown talent, fully endearing himself to the Spurs' faithful along the way. Guillem Balagué was granted unprecedented access to Pochettino and his backroom staff for the duration of the 2016-17 season, and he has therefore been able to draw on extensive interview material with Pochettino, his family, his closest assistants, players such as Dele Alli and Harry Kane and even a very rare conversation with Daniel Levy to tell the manager's story in his own words. From Pochettino's early years as a player and coach to his transformation of Tottenham into one of the best teams in England, this audiobook uniquely reveals the inner workings of the man and of his footballing philosophy. It also lays bare what it takes to run a modern-day football team competing at the highest level over the course of a single campaign. The result is the most comprehensive and compelling portrait of a manager and of a club in the Premier League era. Read by Piers Hampton. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Guillem Balague (P)2017 Orion Publishing Group