This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2024 by Yamile Saied Méndez

Cover art copyright © 2024 by Lauren Dimaya. Cover design by Sylvia Bi and Jen Keenan. Cover copyright © 2024 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Interior design by Andrew Wang.

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The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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Originally published in hardcover and ebook by Algonquin Young Readers in September 2024

First Edition: September 2024

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Méndez, Yamile Saied, author.

Title: The beautiful game / Yamile Saied Mendez.

Description: First edition. | New York : Algonquin Books for Young Readers, 2024. | Audience: Ages 9 up. | Summary: When thirteen-year-old Valeria, former star player on the Overlords boys’ team, joins the girls’ team for the first time, she must find her place and learn how to play “like a girl.”

Identifiers: LCCN 2024010244 (print) | LCCN 2024010245 (ebook) | ISBN 9781643753980 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781523529889 (ebook)

Subjects: CYAC: Soccer—Fiction. | Self-confidence—Fiction. | Family life—Fiction. | LCGFT: Sports fiction. | Novels.

Classification: LCC PZ7.1.M4713 Be 2024 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.M4713 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024010244

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024010245

ISBNs: 978-1-64375-398-0 (hardcover), 978-1-5235-2988-9 (ebook)

E3-20250224-PDJ-PC-COR

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

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Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Praise for "The Beautiful Game"

pagelist

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Landmarks

Cover

Table of Contents

Para el Lalo