Player Manager: A Sports Progression Fantasy cover art

Player Manager: A Sports Progression Fantasy

Player Manager, Book 1

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Player Manager: A Sports Progression Fantasy

By: Ted Steel
Narrated by: Luke Francis
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Could a seemingly average Premier League fan oversee a football club better than a top manager? Max is starting to think so . . .

Max Best is not living his—ahem—best life. His job's a drag, his home's a shooting gallery, his hopes are nil, and lately, even his beloved game of football has devolved from a chaotic, ecstatic delight into a cold, calculating equation complete with stats, tech terms, and mindless lingo. But then Max rescues a mysterious old man from a mugging. "Nick" seems friendly enough . . . until he innocently asks his savior, "Would you sell your soul to be a top football manager?"

Naturally, Max says yes, and in that instant, everything changes. Suddenly, whenever he watches a footie match, the skills and attributes of every player are visible to him within an eyes-only display. While he's terrified at first, he quickly learns to appreciate his abilities—even embracing them to gain his own level-ups and experience. And he's going to need them.

Because his otherworldly talent is about to have a massive effect on his real-world existence, catapulting him from small local matches to the insanity of top-tier football. But the more he succeeds, the more he's torn between the simple, happy fanatic he once was and the master of the pitch he's becoming. Soon Max will have to ask himself: Is football really a matter of life or death? Or is there something more important worth fighting for?

The first volume of the hit progression-fantasy series—with more than 700,000 views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2023 Ted Steel (P)2023 Podium Audio
Action & Adventure Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Sports Paranormal Royalty

Listeners also enjoyed...

Mark of the Fool cover art
Spudd cover art
A Father's Son cover art
Defiance of the Fall cover art
Book of the Dead: Awakening cover art
Dungeon Crawler Carl cover art
He Who Fights with Monsters: A LitRPG Adventure cover art
All the Skills: A Deck-Building LitRPG cover art
Dawn of the Void cover art
Beware of Chicken: A Xianxia Cultivation Novel cover art
Monarch: A Prince Out of Time cover art
The Perfect Run cover art
Portal to Nova Roma cover art
Who Am I? cover art
Apocalypse Redux, Book One cover art
Big Sneaky Barbarian: A LitRPG Novel cover art
All stars
Most relevant
As someone whom at one point had gone past the year 2020 on Champ Man 99/00, this story really speaks to me. There's a few plotholes though, like "why doesn't he just watch MNF, MOTD, or clips of Maradona on Youtube to gain XP, rather than sitting at some 5aside league?", but it's an enjoyable story nevertheless.

A must for a Champ Man Enthusiast

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

The protagonist's perspective of football as a soap opera for men was both funny and touching. The characters just leapt off the page. I don't think there was a single character who felt two dimensional or a cardboard cutout. It's very difficult to write realistic characters and Ted Steel nails it. Even the antagonists are normal people with sensible motives and measured responses. Even if you aren't a football fan I would recommend this book for the character driven aspects.

The setting is northern England and the narrator of the audiobook really sells it. The author must come from that part of the country as it's as grounded as any setting could hope to be. The plot was great too. I continually envisioned a sudden time skip or leap forward but there was a slow, steady reasonable progression with highs and lows throughout.

Great book. Great narration too.

I'm not a football fan but I really enjoyed this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I was browsing reddit and looking for an ' easy listen' series that I could use my credits on as I had a lot leftover.... and I came across a post called something along the lines of ' What are your favourite good but obscure LitRPGs' and this series kept coming up in the discussion and I was intrigued!

In my experience, LitRPGs are often based around a fantasy dungeons and dragons/final fantasy style powers. I had never seen someone base one around a sports game. I was really curious about how someone getting the powers that you have in a football manager sim would work.

I don't watch football or have any interest in it. What I really like about this book is that the author manages to introduce a lot of terminology around tactics and explain it all in a way that is funny and accessible and make you feel really interested in what is going on. I didn't realise how important it was to correctly position players on the pitch, or that managers did things other than decide the line up and give pep talks.

I found the book really funny and I loved all the references to Manchester and British culture at the time the book takes place.

I don't even like Football....but I liked this book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Brilliant book. Very genuine even if the main character is a menace.

It was weird at points. But only because I'm literally halfway through a football manager save as Chester.

And, as a palace fan that's read the copy on our website all I can say is "at least the SEO is good 😅".

A love letter to football manager

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

very slow starter and can be frustrating but very unique and if I'm honest drew me in and couldn't wait for the next one as I've been constantly listening to fantasy lit rpg so pleasant change

slow burner but worth it for any football gan

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews