The Away Game, Sebastian Abbot
The Away Game, Sebastian Abbot
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

The Away Game
The Epic Search for Soccer's Next Superstars

Author: Sebastian Abbot

Narrator: Robert Fass

Unabridged: 8 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/06/2018


Synopsis

For the past decade, an audacious program called Football Dreams has held tryouts for millions of young boys across Africa, looking for soccer's next superstars. Led by the Spanish scout who helped launch Lionel Messi's career and funded by the desert kingdom of Qatar, the program chooses just a handful of boys each year to train to become professionals; the process is one thousand times more selective than getting into Harvard University.

In an extraordinary work of reporting, international politics, and sports science, Sebastian Abbot follows a small group of the boys as they are discovered on dirt fields across Africa, join the glittering Football Dreams academy in Doha, and fight for the chance to gain fame and fortune at Europe’s top clubs. Weaving together the drama of the boys' determination to chase their dreams with the latest ideas on talent spotting and predicting sporting success, Abbot memorably explores why some of the boys succeed and chronicles the heartbreak of those who don't.

About Sebastian Abbot

Sebastian Abbot worked for the Associated Press in Cairo and Islamabad, where he was bureau chief. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton University and a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jon

I’m not a soccer fan but enjoyed this book immensely. I read it over a weekend and literally could not put it down. It’s like a soccer-themed combination of Hoop Dreams and Moneyball with a global angle. But you don’t need to be a soccer fan to enjoy it, just like you don’t need to be a fan of rowin......more

Goodreads review by MH

Abbot's compulsively readable book centers on a handful of young men who are scouted by Football Dreams, a massive Qatari initiative to search for U-13 soccer talent throughout Africa, and follows how they navigate sporting and family pressures, the transition from absolute poverty, and their own he......more

Goodreads review by Jenique

In addition to be a journey through the world of soccer, ambition, poverty, dreams, governments and country competitions, The Away Game presents the challenges, heartbreaks and sometimes achievements with particularly well written prose and imagery. With the author coming from a journalism backgroun......more