Gwendolyn Oxenham
Across two dozen countriesâ€”from back alleys to remote beaches to the roofs of skyscrapersâ€”an eye-opening journey into the heart of soccer,Â Every country has a different term for it: In the United States itâ€™s â€œpickup.â€Â  In Trinidad itâ€™s â€œtaking a sweat.â€ In Brazil itâ€™s â€œpeladaâ€ (literally â€œnakedâ€).Â  Itâ€™s the other side of soccer, those spontaneous matches played away from the bright lights and manicured fieldsâ€”the game for anyone, anywhere.Â At sixteen, Gwendolyn Oxenham was the youngest Division I athlete in NCAA history, a starter and leading goal-scorer for Duke. At twenty, she graduated, the womenâ€™s professional soccer league folded, and her career was over. In ,Finding the Game,, Oxenham, along with her boyfriend and two friends, chases the part of the game that outlasts a career. They bribe their way into a Bolivian prison, bet shillings on a game with moonshine brewers in Kenya, play with women in hijab on a court in Tehranâ€”and discover what the world looks like when you wander down side streets, holding on to a ball.Â An entertaining, heartfelt look at the soul of a sport, this book is proof that on the field and in life, some things need no translation.
Soccer,Sports,Sports,Nonfiction,Football,Autobiography,Memoir,Biography
Finding the Game: Three Years, Twenty-Five Countries, and the Search for Pickup Soccer