Game On: Using the World Cup to Engage Reluctant Readers in Your School Library

When the FIFA World Cup 2026 kicks off on 11 June, 48 teams and 104 matches across the United States, Canada and Mexico will have students talking, predicting and cheering for weeks. That energy is one of the best opportunities you'll get all year — because using sports to engage reluctant readers works. A child who insists they "don't read" will happily pore over team line-ups, player stats and match reports. The trick is meeting them where their enthusiasm already is.

Why sport opens the door to reading

Reluctant readers often aren't reluctant about reading — they're reluctant about reading material that feels irrelevant to them. Sport changes that equation. Following a tournament naturally involves reading: fixtures, scores, biographies, headlines and history. When the content is something a student genuinely cares about, the barrier drops and reading becomes a means to an end they actually want.

Curriculum link: this kind of reading maps neatly onto real literacy outcomes — non-fiction comprehension (stats, tables, infographics), persuasive writing (match predictions, opinion pieces), and oral language (debating who'll win). It's an easy way to show teaching staff that "fun" reading is also "useful" reading.

Books written by professional footballers

One of the most effective World Cup tie-ins is showing students that the players they watch on screen have also written books. Pulling these onto a dedicated display — with player photos and a "did you know they wrote this?" sign — is a near-guaranteed conversation starter. A starting list for your collection:

Lower Primary / Early Readers

• "Frankie's Magic Football" series by Frank Lampard (former England and Chelsea midfielder). A 20-book chapter book series (ages 6+) where Frankie and his team are whisked into magical adventures with pirates, dinosaurs and aliens — football mixed with fantasy, great for newly independent readers.

Upper Primary

• "The Breakfast Club Adventures" by Marcus Rashford (Manchester United and England forward) with Alex Falase-Koya, illustrated by Marta Kissi. Middle-grade fiction inspired by Rashford's own childhood, following a group of friends at their school breakfast club. Multiple titles in the series.
• "You Are a Champion: How to Be the Best You Can Be" and its follow-up "You Can Do It: How to Find Your Voice and Make a Difference", by Marcus Rashford with Carl Anka. Non-fiction/self-help titles aimed at helping kids build confidence — strong for wellbeing and SEL collections, and a good non-fiction option for reluctant readers.
• Three Lionesses by Ella Toone, Georgia Stanway and Nikita Parris (England Lionesses). A book by three current England internationals encouraging kids to chase their goals — a strong pick for promoting girls' participation in sport and reading alike.
• "The Kicks" series by Alex Morgan (USWNT forward, World Cup winner and Olympic gold medallist). Middle-grade fiction following a girls' soccer team — over a dozen titles, ideal for building a reading habit through a series.

Secondary / YA and Staff Collections

• "Breakaway: Beyond the Goal" by Alex Morgan. A memoir from a World Cup-winning and Olympic gold medal-winning player — a strong option for secondary students interested in sports memoirs and women's football history.
• Player autobiographies more broadly (e.g. titles from current and recent World Cup squad members) work well in secondary non-fiction sections and can be promoted alongside the tournament — check what's available from your usual library suppliers closer to kick-off, as new player memoirs are often released around major tournaments.

World Cup reading ideas for your library

A few low-prep ways to ride the wave of football fever:

• A World Cup display. Pull together football fiction, player biographies, atlases and books about the 16 host cities. Pair each competing nation with a book set in that country to sneak in some global reading.
• Predict and report. Invite students to write match predictions before games and short "match reports" after. It's authentic writing practice disguised as fun.
• Stats and non-fiction. Reluctant readers often gravitate to facts, records and infographics. Stock up on sports almanacs and record books — reading doesn't have to mean novels.
• A reading league table. Run a friendly "books read" leaderboard alongside the tournament group stage to keep momentum going right through to the final on 19 July.

Bring the tournament into your library with Oliver

If you're an Oliver customer, you don't have to build everything from scratch. Our downloadable news pages give you ready-made, themed content you can drop straight into your library's home page — a fast way to surface World Cup reading lists, link to relevant resources in your collection and keep students clicking through to books. It's a simple step that connects a global event to the titles already on your shelves.

However your students engage with the World Cup, the goal is the same: turn a moment of shared excitement into a habit of picking up a book. Sometimes the best path to a lifelong reader runs straight through the back pages.

Build a FIFA World Cup reading list in Oliver v5

If you're an Oliver customer, creating a dedicated World Cup reading list is one of the fastest and most visible things you can do right now — and once it's live, it surfaces on your OPAC, feeds your home page carousel, and can be pushed into Orbit and LearnPath too. Here's how to set it up:

1. Create the reading list in Authority Control

Go to Authority Control > Reading Lists and create a new list. Name it something students will respond to — "World Cup 2026 Reads", "Football Fever" or "Game On" all work well. You can organise related lists into a hierarchy (e.g. a parent list called "World Cup 2026" with sub-lists for "Football Fiction", "Player Biographies" and "Countries of the World").

2. Add your resources — two ways

• Search and select: Run a keyword or subject search in Oliver for football, soccer, World Cup or specific player names. Select the titles you want and add them directly to the list.
• Scan barcodes: If you're pulling physical copies off the shelf to build a display, scan their barcodes straight into the list — faster for large batches.

A resource can live in multiple reading lists at once, so there's no need to remove titles from existing genre or subject lists to include them here.

3. Add a World Cup icon or image

Oliver v5 lets you attach an image to each reading list. That icon appears next to the list name and next to each title in search results — students can click it to view the full list. A football or World Cup graphic here makes the list instantly recognisable on the OPAC and turns a borrowing prompt into a discovery moment.

4. Set an expiry date

The World Cup final is 19 July. Set the list to expire on or just after that date so it retires automatically — no manual cleanup needed at the end of term.

5. Drop it into your home page carousel

Reading lists populate Oliver's book carousels directly. Add the World Cup list to your home page slider so it's the first thing students see when they open the OPAC. Pair it with the downloadable World Cup news page to give the whole home page a tournament feel without building anything from scratch.

6. Surface it in Orbit and LearnPath

If your school uses Orbit or LearnPath, the same reading list can be deployed there too — a single list reaches students across every platform they use to find resources.

For more on building and managing reading lists in Oliver v5, the full video guide series covers creating, merging, organising into hierarchies and deleting lists — each video is just a few minutes long.

However your students engage with the World Cup, the goal is the same: turn a moment of shared excitement into a habit of picking up a book. Sometimes the best path to a lifelong reader runs straight through the back pages — or the cover of a book with a player's name on it.

More Ideas for Library Engagement

Looking for more ways to transform your school library into a dynamic learning hub? Check out these relevant guides and resources from the Softlink blog:

• Looking for more key dates? Check out our Special Days to Celebrate in Your School Library Calendar to keep the library engagement going all term long.
• Want to track your reading challenge data? Discover how to run a "Most Popular Resources" or "Borrower Usage" report with our breakdown of the Top 5 Oliver Reports Every School Library Should Use.
• Want to explore new ways to connect with your readers? Read our guide on Softlink solutions to support reading engagement to learn how to set up dynamic reading lists and genre carousels.