Dal, Chris, Abs and Jason have made the squad for the local youth club under-11s football team. And after their first match (not as successful as they'd have liked), they are determined to prove that they've got what it takes to be winners. Jason, Dal, Abs and Chris are about to be famous! A TV documentary is being made about their team and everyone wants the chance to shine in front of the cameras. But what is more important - looking like a star, or playing well as part of the team? When Abs takes his posing a bit too far, is he getting too big for his boots?

Zebra is happy to join the Shooting Stars Soccer team. The trouble begins when he does not take the time to learn the rules and makes mistakes as a result. Soon, the team doesn't want him to play anymore. The coach helps Zebra accept responsibility and learn from his mistakes. Social and emotional learning concepts include teamwork, making friends, patience, and humility. Book includes a note to caregivers and story coaching. A Reader’s Theater version is available online so that children can benefit from dramatic interpretation.

Soccer, the most popular mass spectator sport in the world, has always remained a marker of identities of various sorts. Behind the façade of its obvious entertainment aspect, it has proved to be a perpetuating reflector of nationalism, ethnicity, community or communal identity, and cultural specificity. Naturally therefore, the game is a complex representative of minorities’ status especially in countries where minorities play a crucial role in political, social, cultural or economic life. The question is also important since in many nations success in sports like soccer has been used as an instrument for assimilation or to promote an alternative brand of nationalism. Thus, Jewish teams in pre-Second World War Europe were set up to promote the idea of a muscular Jewish identity. Similarly, in apartheid South Africa, soccer became the game of the black majority since it was excluded from the two principal games of the country – rugby and cricket. In India, on the other hand, the Muslim minorities under colonial rule appropriated soccer to assert their community-identity. The book examines why in certain countries, minorities chose to take up the sport while in others they backed away from participating in the game or, alternatively, set up their own leagues and practised self-exclusion. The book examines European countries like the Netherlands, England and France, the USA, Africa, Australia and the larger countries of Asia – particularly India. This book was previously published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

Star-Spangled Soccer traces the development of soccer in the USA. It is the first book that tells the story of how the sport rose to extreme highs and suffered almost catastrophic lows as it fought to position itself on the American sports landscape, beginning with the announcement from FIFA in 1988 that America would host the 1994 World Cup.

Foreword by Richard Hytner, Deputy Chairman, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide We’ve all worked with one—a smart and immensely talented individual who brings enormous value to the organization. The problem? He’s an awful teammate. So as a leader, do you consider this key player toxic or irreplaceable? There Is an I in Team explores the relationship between individual and team—asking the question, How can we harness the talent of individual performers into a cohesive, productive team that creates overall value? And why are so many of our assumptions about teams wrong? Business challenges like this one mimic many of the issues facing sports teams, though admittedly the sports metaphors most commonly used in business are trite and superficial comparisons. What’s needed are real and substantial lessons that managers actually can take from the world of high-performance sports and use in an everyday work environment. This book meets that need. University of Cambridge professor Mark de Rond has combined cutting-edge social and psychological research with rich stories from world-class sports teams, coaches, athletes, and even business executives. The result challenges our most popular notions about teams. Equally critical, it teaches an innovative way to transform team potential into measurable business advantage. You’ll learn: • Why there is an I in team—and why that matters • Why an ideal team is rarely comprised of the best individual performers • Why conflict happens even when intentions are perfectly aligned • Why likability can trump competence even in technically sophisticated environments • Why a focus on interpersonal harmony can actually hurt team performance • Why data and sophisticated statistical tools are unlikely to eliminate the role of intuition At once readable and teachable, There Is an I in Team will strengthen your understanding of the issues that permeate teams of high-performers, and it will help you apply these new insights to your own work—giving you and your team an edge over the competition.