by Grant Wahl
First published 2025
This collection spans four decades of Grant Wahl's journalism, from his earliest college writing through his quarter century at Sports Illustrated to his final independent reporting. The book organizes his work by theme rather than chronology, showing how his career tracked the evolution of modern sportswriting. Wahl covered soccer culture from Barcelona's elite circles to Texas sandlots, documented historic championship moments, and profiled future stars like LeBron James and Christian Pulisic early in their careers. He championed women's sports through pieces on Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe. His final stories from Qatar, where he died of an aortic aneurysm during the 2022 World Cup, defended migrant workers and LGBTQ+ rights. The collection reveals a journalist who wrote with clarity across all formats, maintained social consciousness, and never condescended to readers while refusing to oversimplify complex issues.
Genres: sports, non-fiction, 21st-century, journalism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: biographical, career-retrospective
Setting: Barcelona, Texas, Qatar
Period: 2022 World Cup
368 pages · Paperback · Ballantine Books