Ultimate Football Heroes: Ronaldo

Ultimate Football Heroes: Ronaldo by Matt and Tom Oldfield is a true football story for 8 year olds that begins with the biggest night of Cristiano's career going badly wrong.

What happens

It's the Euro 2016 final and Cristiano is Portugal's captain. Early in the game a tackle wrecks his knee and he's carried off on a stretcher, crying. So he spends the rest of the night on the touchline, limping up and down and shouting instructions like a second manager.

Then the book goes right back to the start. Cristiano grew up in one of the poorest parts of Funchal, on Madeira. Some weeks the family could only afford bread and soup. (His middle name comes from Ronald Reagan, of all people!)

He learned his tricks in the street, with rocks for goalposts, stopping every time a car came past. He also sneaked out through the back door before his homework was done, and got marched home by the ear.

And he hated losing. At his first proper club his teammates called him Cry-Baby. He cried when they lost, when nobody passed to him and when someone told him off for not passing. If your own footballer is a bit of a sore loser, they might see themselves here!

The part that stays with you is Lisbon. Cristiano leaves the island for Sporting's academy on his own. He gets lost on the trains, the class laughs at his accent and he phones his mum in tears asking to come home.

It's told like a story, with lots of chat and a LOT of "Goooooaaaal!" The chapters are short and each one feels like a little match of its own. Everything's right there on the page, so it's very easy to get into.

If your reader loves football as much as books, this is a great way to put the two together. It's also a nice reminder that the best players were once kids who got into trouble over homework.

What to read next

If they want another, Kylian Mbappé's story is in the same series. It opens the same way, on a big final (the 2018 World Cup this time), before heading back to his childhood in Bondy.