SOCCER LOVERS BOOK REVIEW: HOPE – My Life In Football
Hope Powell is an amazing woman. As the back jacket of the book says, “The story of the original Bend it like Beckham girl: The Pioneering Women’s Football Manager.”
Hope Powell is black, gay and an expert footballer — determined and brave. This is her story.
Hope Powell is a living legend — an English footballer who grew up to become a top player with 66 caps and the coach of England’s National Women’s Football Team for 15 years and only stepping down recently, in 2013.
HOPE – My Life In Football is the courageous story of a woman whose passion was so strong that even being banned from playing on her soccer team when she was 12 years old, just because she was a girl, didn’t stop her.
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The new book by Hope Powell — with Marvin Close — is an exciting read — a tour of all that went on behind the scenes in the complex world of English soccer. With highlights on the challenges as well as the highs, HOPE – My Life In Football brings international women’s soccer in to focus.
Breaking barriers and forging new ground for women around the world, Hope Powell is the youngest ever and the first female England coach.
Just the Facts: Hope Powell is a trendsetter and a role model for women around the planet. In 2003 Powell became the first woman to achieve the UEFA Pro License – the highest coaching award available.
Now, Powell has become the first female coach educator to work with the Professional Footballers’ Association.
As Bloomsbury / Amazon says,”Hope Powell was a skinny little black girl from South London who only ever wanted to play football. Brought up in a violent home, she was actively discouraged from playing. The original Bend It Like Beckham girl, this is the amazing story of how a kid from a Greenwich housing estate became one of the most influential women in world football.”
A GREAT READ. Complete with Career Statistics as England’s Manager, this book records the journey of Powell’s life.
Did you know that women were playing organized soccer well before World War I?
Powell closes her book with the statement:
Football is more than just a game. It can transform lives in so many ways …. It offers the opportunity to strive, improve and aspire as an individual…
