The Striker and the Clock: On Being in the Game

Former professional soccer player Cloepfil debuts with a spare but potent account of her nomadic years on the field. In 90 short, meditative chapters (one for each minute of a soccer game), Cloepfil catalogs the highs and lows of her tenures on club teams in the U.S., Australia, Sweden, South Korea, Lithuania, and Norway across the 2010s, noting the elation she felt on the field and sexism she faced off of it. She underscores the persistent pay gap between men’s and women’s players (in the Australian Premier League, women made nothing for playing, while men took home a $1,000 weekly honorarium), highlighting the work she took coaching and writing newsletters just to keep the lights on during some seasons. Still, she evocatively captures the thrill of victory (one high school win in Oregon has her screaming with “enormous, animal relief”) and stresses that she would still be playing had she not suffered a series of debilitating injuries (“I miss it every moment of every day, I will for the rest of my life”). It amounts to an intimate glimpse at the determination and drive required to hack it in pro sports. Even casual soccer fans will devour this. Agent: Laura Usselman, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (July)