Football Crazy (4U2Read) by Tony Bradman, illustrated by Michael Broad

With illustrations by

Michael Broad

First published in 2020 in Great Britain by Barrington Stoke Ltd 18 Walker Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7LP www.barringtonstoke.co.uk This 4u2read edition based on Football Crazy (Barrington Stoke, 2013) Text Š 2020 Tony Bradman Illustrations Š 2013 & 2020 Michael Broad The moral right of Tony Bradman and Michael Broad to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in any part in any form without the written permission of the publisher A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library upon request ISBN: 978-1-78112-929-6 Printed in China by Leo

For Oscar, my favourite footballer!

Contents 1

Not Much Fun

1

2

What Next?

6

3

Enter the Dragon

13

4

A Bit Scary

18

5

Red Crosses

24

6

Who Said Football Was Fun?

31

7

The Big Leagues

36

8

A Red Card

44

Chapter 1

Not Much Fun

What a great day to play football, Danny thought as he ran out onto the pitch. There had been some rain this morning, but it had stopped, and the pitch was perfect – not too damp and not too hard.

“Hey, Danny, your ball!” his friend Jamil shouted.

Danny looked up and saw the ball drop towards him out of the sky. He took it on his

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chest, let it fall, then hit it back on the volley.

The ball flew into the goal.

“He shoots – he scores!” Danny laughed.

“Pretty cool,” said Lewis, his other friend.

The three of them had been best mates since Infant School, and they had joined their team, Redpath Rovers, together a few years ago. “It’s just a shame you don’t ever score in matches,” Lewis said. “We might win a few if you did.”

Danny, Lewis and Jamil were all football crazy. They always had a kick‑about before a game, when they tried tricks with the ball and pretended they were superstars. Danny sometimes thought this was the best part of being in Redpath Rovers.

The real games weren’t as much fun. Last season the team had lost every game. This season looked like it was going the same way.

So far they had played three games and lost all of them.

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Their coach, Mr Perkins, came out onto the pitch. “Right, lads, gather round!” he shouted.

Mr Perkins had been a Maths teacher and he didn’t know an awful lot about football. But nobody else had wanted to coach the team.

Danny ran over with Lewis and Jamil to join the rest of the team. They stood round Mr Perkins as they waited for his pre‑match pep‑talk.

3

A few parents stood round the pitch. None of them looked too keen to be there.

Mr Perkins’s pep‑talk was the same as ever: • Remember what we practised in training (most of the team didn’t go to training); • Keep your shape (no one understood what that was); • Make every ball count (would they even get possession of the ball?).

At last the ref blew his whistle for the teams to get ready to start the game. Mr Perkins gave a deep sigh and walked slowly to the edge of the pitch.

Rovers won the toss. Danny stood next to Jamil. The ball was on the centre spot between them, and everyone was waiting for kick‑off.

4

“I don’t know about you,” said Jamil. “But I think we’re going to win.”

They lost …

15–0.

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