Linda Soules Releases 'So You Want To Be A Soccer Player,' a 46-Page Career Guide for Kids Ages 10 to 14

Author Linda Soules has released So You Want To Be A Soccer Player: A Kids' Guide to Footwork, Teamwork, World Cup Legends, and the Athletes Who Turn the World's Favorite Game into Magic, a 46-page children's nonfiction book for readers ages 10 to 14. The title is listed at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HQVVQ2M7 (ISBN 979-8-951756-46-6). It asks a direct question: what does it take to play the world's most popular sport for a living? The book answers with skills instruction, history, player profiles, and a plain account of the odds. It is the latest entry in Soules's So You Want To Be A… career-exploration series, which covers professions from astronaut to roller coaster designer.

Soccer has a fan base that some estimates put at about four billion people, and that reach shapes how many children first meet the sport. Most start as players or fans. Far fewer learn what the job involves day to day: the training structure, the preparation, the recovery, and the large number of people who work around the athletes. Children's sports books often lean on highlight reels and hero worship. They tend to skip the mechanics of the game and the realities of a professional career.

Soules built the book around a rule that sets soccer apart from most major sports: players cannot use their hands. Athletes must control a spinning ball at full speed with their feet, chest, and head while opponents try to take it away. The book uses that constraint to explain why technique matters so much. Readers learn why coaches often watch a player's first touch more closely than the shot that follows it. They also get plain-language explanations of how formations such as 4-3-3 work and what the offside rule actually means, two topics that regularly confuse new fans of any age.

A "Which Position Are You?" section helps readers consider whether they might suit goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, or forward. A "Day in the Life" feature follows a professional athlete through breakfast with the team nutritionist, a rondo (a keep-away passing drill) at training, a video session on the next opponent, and a ten-minute ice bath. The book also includes practical exercises young players can start immediately: wall passing, juggling for a personal record, and learning the Cruyff Turn. The aim is to connect what readers see on television to habits they can build in a backyard or at a park.

The history section reaches back more than 2,000 years, to cuju in ancient China and kemari in Japan. It then moves to the London tavern where the Football Association wrote the first shared rules in 1863. Women's soccer receives specific attention. Readers meet the Dick, Kerr Ladies, who drew 53,000 fans in 1920, and learn about the fifty-year ban on women's soccer that followed. The book also visits a floating pitch built by kids in a Thai fishing village, showing how the game adapts to the places where children live and play.

Profiles introduce Pelé, Mia Hamm, Marta, Sun Wen, Lionel Messi, and Didier Drogba, the striker who used his fame to help push his country toward peace. Lighter stories keep the pace brisk. They include Pickles the dog, who found the stolen World Cup trophy; a goalkeeper left alone in the fog for fifteen minutes; and Paul the octopus, who "predicted" match winners. The mix of athletes from different eras, regions, and backgrounds gives readers a wider view of who has shaped the sport. It also shows that success in soccer can mean more than goals scored.

The book does not present professional soccer as an easy path. It addresses injuries, public slumps, and youth heading guidelines, and it states that far fewer than one in a hundred young players turn professional. That candor is central to the series' approach. Because the odds are long, the book explains why school matters and introduces other careers in the game, including referee, coach, sports scientist, and kit designer. Readers are encouraged to see soccer as a field with many entry points, not a single outcome that defines success or failure for a young athlete.

The book sits in the So You Want To Be A… series, which carries two 2026 honors: the Grand Prize at the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards and a Silver Award in Children's Nonfiction at the CIPA EVVY Book Awards. Within that series, the soccer title takes a format that treats young readers as capable of handling real information. It combines a career overview with skills practice, history, and biography in a single volume. Back matter includes a kid-friendly glossary, recommended books and websites, and a list of youth soccer organizations to explore, giving families and teachers clear next steps after the last page.

"Kids who love soccer deserve the full picture: the skills, the history, the long odds, and the many other ways to build a life around the game," said Linda Soules, author of the So You Want To Be A… series.

The book is written for ages 10 to 14 and is accessible to younger readers who read with an adult. Young players can use it as a training companion, while casual fans can use it to understand formations and rules. Classroom teachers and homeschool families can draw on the history, geography, and biography content, and librarians can add it to sports and career-exploration shelves. Coaches may find it useful for inspiring their teams. The text uses US terms such as cleats and soccer, and it explains British and international words such as boots, pitch, and football, so readers in other countries can follow along.

So You Want To Be A Soccer Player is available through its Amazon listing at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HQVVQ2M7. The listing identifies the book as a 46-page children's nonfiction title, ISBN 979-8-951756-46-6. Readers, parents, educators, and librarians can find current format and pricing information on that page. The book is described as richly illustrated and suitable as a gift for young soccer and football fans. Organizations such as schools, youth clubs, and libraries that want to review the title for programs or collections can start with the same listing.

The soccer book is one part of a much larger project. Soules envisions the So You Want To Be A… series spanning more than 180 titles, and more than 60 have been published to date, with new releases arriving on a steady cadence. Subjects range from astronauts and marine biologists to magicians, stunt performers, and roller coaster designers. Each title is written to pull back the curtain on a real career: its joys, its challenges, and the path to get there. The soccer volume extends the series into one of the most widely followed sports, where many young readers already have strong interest and personal experience.

About Linda Soules and the So You Want To Be A… series: Linda Soules is the author and creator of the So You Want To Be A… series, a growing collection of career-exploration books for readers ages 10 to 14 and beyond. Her stated philosophy is to never talk down to kids, and to write books that respect young readers' intelligence while sparking their enthusiasm. Titles cover a wide range of professions, with each book examining a real career and how to reach it. The soccer title is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HQVVQ2M7.