Book 5 in the Football Academy series.

James is a brilliant central defender. The best player at United and he has a great pedigree: his dad used to play for England. When the team go to play West Ham United, his dad’s ex-club, everyone is telling James he is going to be an England player too.
But James doesn’t want to be a footballer. He wants to be something else. And before he tells that to his dad, he has to admit it to himself.

Read the first chapter of Free Kick here.

Watch me read from Free Kick and ask quiz questions here.

Find out more about the other books in the Football Academy series here.

Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available personalised to order from my local independent children’s bookshop “The Thoughtful Spot”here.

Available from your local library, bookshops, Amazon and Kindle.

Published by Puffin Books.

NEW Kindle Football Academy book

Starting at just 99p this summer.

Football Academy : Teamwork is the prequel to my 100,000 selling Football Academy series, published by Puffin.

Read it now here

Player Profile

Name: James Cunningham
Age: 11
Position: central defender
Best friend on team: Ben

Interview with Tom Palmer about writing Free Kick

How can James not want to be a professional footballer?
I’m not sure. If I’d had that chance I’d have given up anything to be a footballer.

So is it realistic to make up a story like that?
I think so. I sometimes try to write about people who would do and think things very different to me. It’s not easy. That’s why I always try to find things about people before I write. I knew a person who had a friend who gave up football. I spoke to him. To see how he felt. That helped me to make James’ character more real. I hope.

Do you ever make up characters based on real people?
All the time. I use names of people I know all the time. In fact, on page 106 of Free Kick there’s a man called Jim in the story. A West Ham fan. He is based on my friend, Jim Sells, who works for the National Literacy Trust. He loves to play guitar, so I gave him a guitar in the book too.

Reviews of Free Kick

“I got all these books this summer. Now this is the latest one. It is really good. James’s dad is a former pro footballer. James plays for United and he doesn’t want to be a footballer any more. Its about how he tells his dad.” A kid’s review, Amazon
Tell me here what you thought about Free Kick.

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Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available personalised to order from my local independent children’s bookshop “The Thoughtful Spot”here.

Football Academy 5: Free Kick Amazon

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