Böcker av Georgia Cloepfil

An illuminating perspective on the life of an athlete and the pursuit of excellence outside the spotlight. Georgia Cloepfil played professional soccer for six years, on six teams, in six countries. In those years, the sport became more than a game--it was an immersive yet transient way of life. In South Korea, she lived and practiced in an isolated island compound next to an airport. In Australia, she coached youth teams on the side to pay her rent. In Lithuania, she played in the European Champions League, to empty stadiums and little fanfare. She lived out of a single suitcase, chasing better opportunities and the euphoria of playing well. The Striker and the Clock is a beautiful examination of the joy and pain of serious athletics. It's also an eye-opening look at the still-developing world of professional women's soccer. Written in ninety short passages--reflecting the ninety inexorably passing minutes of a soccer match--the book is a love letter to a maddening sport and a reflection on the way it has shaped a life. In vivid prose, it portrays the athlete as an artist, debating how much of herself to devote to her craft. This finely wrought, singular book celebrates the complex appeal of sports and the fulfillment found in fleeting moments of glory.

An exhilarating and searing memoir about life as a professional female footballer - and a beautiful examination of the joy and pain of serious athleticsIn The Striker and the Clock, Georgia Cloepfil tells the story of her life in football: the triumph, the exhilaration, the deep bonds between team mates, and also the years of self-denial, exile and obsessive dedication, in which players try to outpace the clock that ticks down to that one injury that will end it all.Threading between floodlit pitches, sparse dorm rooms, and doctor's offices, Cloepfil outlines an obsessive pursuit of perfection: one that sees her begin each day by touching the ball a thousand times; running over six miles in practices with a meter strapped to her body; and near-constant visualization and revisualization of triumph and despair.What emerges is a profound meditation on what it is to have a body, and what it is to have a compulsion to push it to do the near impossible; and a love letter to the motivations, joys, pains and desires of a beautiful game.