Football Friends tells the story of Juan Pasadas, a 14 year old Spanish boy. Juan's mother met a man called Derek on the internet and moved to Bristol in England. Juan lives with his mum and Derek, an enthusiastic musician. Juan has problems at school as his English is awful. He hates Bristol and English weather. The only thing Juan likes is football. What can Juan do to sort out his life? He needs a friend - a football friend. But where will he find a football friend? Will his geography homework improve? Will Derek ever play in a top band? Read Football Friends and find out.

To read the first chapter of Football Friends, click on Football friends first chapter.

To hear the first chapter of Football Friends, click on the flash file below. (Please be patient as it may take a while to load, depending on your internet connection).

For teachers using the book with their pupils, you may like to download all the mp3 files of the book for use in class. It can be downloaded for free from the publisher's website. This gives you an opportunity to hear the story before you order a class set of thirty copies.

You (or your students) may also like to write a review of Football Friends

The illustrations by Birgitte Frier bring Juan to life. The cover, part of Juan's dream, is intended to appeal to both male and female readers.

The book is level 2, based on a vocabulary of 650 words. In the space above you can see a wordle produced using software from the excellent www.wordle.net. Click on the image to enlarge it. You can then save it and either print it out or project it onto a screen for your students. Teachers using Football friends with their students may prefer to print out the black and white version. The book is published by Alinea in Denmark and sold by a variety of educational publishers. Here are details of the places where you can buy it. In some cases there is a direct link to the book, in other cases you'll have to rattle the cage of the publisher in question.