Soccer

Heart For The Game

Simon Keith is not only one of the longest-living heart transplant recipients, he is also the first to have ever played professional sports after a transplant.

This is his remarkable story.

It is the story of one of the most talented young soccer players in North America, on his way to playing for his country in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. Unfortunately, Simon never made that trip. He was diagnosed with a fatal heart disease and given only a few weeks to live.

Then something extraordinary happened.

Perilously close to death, Simon received the gift of a heart donation. Simon was given a second chance, from the most ironic of donors.

Following his heart transplant, not only did Simon return to play professional soccer becoming one of the best players in North America for the second time, he went on to live the life he always dreamed of having. He has lived a rich and glorious life, from professional and personal success, to the joys of family and fatherhood.

More than 25 years after receiving his new heart, Keith reflected on all he gained and decided to seek out the Fields family in an effort to learn more about their son James who died tragically and whose heart still beats within Simon’s chest.

And to thank them for all he received.

Keith’s story is more than simply about the process of getting a transplant. It’s about the will to survive and the lessons learned from friends and family along the way. It’s about never giving up on a dream and persevering through what some people feel can be overwhelming.

The journey ended at the gravesite of James Fields with Keith and James’ father Robert staring at the headstone, reflecting upon the tragedy that allowed Simon to survive. The incredible coincidences in the lives of James and Simon are simply too much for this to be just a story about overcoming the odds. It is a story that will have you believing in so much more.

Their joyous reunion is enough to warm even the hardest soul, and enrich the lives of all who read this incredible, almost unbelievable, true story.

"I have spent my professional career playing against some of the greatest athletes in the world. Each train hard, have a burning desire for their sport and have inevitably overcome some kind of adversity. I have never met an athlete who overcame Simon’s circumstances. To say the odds of playing soccer again were overwhelming doesn’t even begin to explain what he did."
-Steve Nash, two time NBA MVP
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Mind Gym An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence

Drawing on his work with some of the top teams in professional sports, noted sport psychology consultant Gary Mack shares with you the same techniques and exercises he uses to help elite athletes build mental "muscle." These 40 accessible lessons and inspirational anecdotes will help you gain the "head edge" over the competition.

Price: $8.91

Soccernomics Why England Loses Why Germany and Brazil Win ...

Why do England lose? Why does Scotland suck? Why doesn’t America dominate the sport internationally...and why do the Germans play with such an efficient but robotic style?

These are questions every soccer aficionado has asked. Soccernomics answers them.

Using insights and analogies from economics, statistics, psychology, and business to cast a new and entertaining light on how the game works, Soccernomics reveals the often surprisingly counterintuitive truths about soccer. An essential guide for the 2010 World Cup, Soccernomics is a new way of looking at the world’s most popular game.

Price: $5.38

Outcasts United An American Town a Refugee Team and One ...

The extraordinary tale of a refugee youth soccer team and the transformation of a small American town

Clarkston, Georgia, was a typical Southern town until it was designated a refugee settlement center in the 1990s, becoming the first American home for scores of families in flight from the world’s war zones—from Liberia and Sudan to Iraq and Afghanistan. Suddenly Clarkston’s streets were filled with women wearing the hijab, the smells of cumin and curry, and kids of all colors playing soccer in any open space they could find. The town also became home to Luma Mufleh, an American-educated Jordanian woman who founded a youth soccer team to unify Clarkston’s refugee children and keep them off the streets. These kids named themselves the Fugees.

Set against the backdrop of an American town that without its consent had become a vast social experiment, Outcasts United follows a pivotal season in the life of the Fugees and their charismatic coach. Warren St. John documents the lives of a diverse group of young people as they miraculously coalesce into a band of brothers, while also drawing a fascinating portrait of a fading American town struggling to accommodate its new arrivals. At the center of the story is fiery Coach Luma, who relentlessly drives her players to success on the soccer field while holding together their lives—and the lives of their families—in the face of a series of daunting challenges.

This fast-paced chronicle of a single season is a complex and inspiring tale of a small town becoming a global community—and an account of the ingenious and complicated ways we create a home in a changing world.


From the Hardcover edition.
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Barca The Making of the Greatest Team in the World

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Inverting the Pyramid The History of Football Tactics

Soccer fans love to argue about the tactics a manager puts into play, and this fascinating study traces the world history of tactics, from modern pioneers right back to the beginning, where chaos reigned. Along the way, author Jonathan Wilson, an erudite and detailed writer who never loses a sense of the grand narrative sweep, takes a look at the lives of the great players and thinkers who shaped the game, and discovers why the English in particular have proved themselves so “unwilling to grapple with the abstract.” This is a modern classic of soccer writing that followers of the game will dip into again and again.

 

 

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A Soccer Life in Shorts

From receiving a yellow card at age eight to scoring an own goal to snubbing an internationally renowned goalkeeper, this collection of short stories, poems and pictures will have you laughing until the final whistle. He is also the author of THE GIFT OF STOPPAGE TIME & THE WORLD NEEDS MORE BELLY RUBS.
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How Soccer Explains the World An Unlikely Theory of ...

Soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a perfect window into the cross–currents of today's world, with all its joys and its sorrows. In this remarkably insightful, wide–ranging work of reportage, Franklin Foer takes us on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shining a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything in between. How Soccer Explains the World is an utterly original book that makes sense of our troubled times.

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Fever Pitch

Nick Hornby has been a soccer fan since the moment he was conceived. Fever Pitch is his tribute to a lifelong obsession. Part autobiography, part comedy, part incisive analysis of insanity, Hornby's award-winning memoir captures the fever pitch of fandom—its agony and ecstasy, its community, its defining role in thousands of young men's coming of age stories. Fever Pitch is one for the home team. But above all, it is one for everyone who knows what it really means to have a losing season.
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A Beautiful Game The World's Greatest Players and How ...

Wherever you are on earth, it's only a matter of time before you come across children playing soccer. Another five minutes and you will probably find yourself having a ball rolled to your feet as an invitation to join in the game. Soccer is a common language and a culture shared: a joy, a passion, an escape, and an affirmation of identity understood and celebrated by children—and their parents—in every country around the globe.

For this unique collaborative project, soccer writer Tom Watt talked to the world's top players about growing up and falling in love with the game: Argentina's Lionel Messi and Brazil's Gilberto Silva; England's David James and Scotland's Craig Gordon; Italy's Fabio Cannavaro, Spain's Iker Casillas, and France's Franck RibÉry; South Africa's Benni McCarthy and Nigeria's Nwankwo Kanu; USA's Landon Donovan and Japan's Shunsuke Nakamura; and the world's most famous player, David Beckham.

A Beautiful Game tells their stories, in the players' own words—stories of boys who would grow up to be heroes for a new generation of young players and fans. They look back to their childhoods: to their family homes, to their schoolrooms, to the friends they grew up with, and to the places where they first played the game that has made them stars. The players' words are brought to life with over 160 full-color images that offer rare, emotive, and striking insights into childhood all over the world, and celebrate soccer's ability to touch the lives of children—and adults—wherever the beautiful game is played.

Five percent of the originating publisher's revenue from sales of the book worldwide will benefit selected UNICEF sports-related projects.

Price: $16.06