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Whatever will be, will be

A Matter of Life and Football

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Whatever will be, will be

By: Felix White
Narrated by: Felix White
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About this listen

 'A book so beautiful that it finally made me understand what football means. An exceptional writer.'
- Bella Mackie

'So much more than a book about football. A book about aging, community and memory. Rich in detail and great jokes. I wish I had written it.'
- Josh Widdicombe

'For anyone who loves the FA cup like me, this is your 50 shades.'
- Chris Stark

'A book by a Fulham fan would have to be very good for me to recommend it. Brilliant...I couldn't put it down. Annoyingly.'
- Seann Walsh

'Mesmerising and unputdownable, like Fever Pitch meets The Sportswriter. I commend it in the highest terms.'
- Amol Rajan

'It might be the most perfect football book ever.'
- Charlie Cooper

'I can't recommend it highly enough to anyone who loves beautiful writing.'
- Ivo Graham

'A beautiful book of rare emotional honesty and depth.'
- Ali Millar

'A book that's guaranteed to remind you why you love football.'
- MUNDIAL

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of It's Always Summer Somewhere comes a moving and often hilarious journey through the 2024/25 FA Cup - from the first muddy preliminary round in Penrith to a glorious sunny day at Wembley.

On the brink of turning 40, Felix White sets out to watch a match from every round of the Cup, meeting fans, players and dreamers at every level of the English game. As he travels the country, football becomes a way to explore memory, identity, grief and joy. While he reflects on his own lifelong obsessions, his story becomes a unique expression of how the game communicates something vital, both literal and internal, between a child and an adult.

Told with lyrical wit and heartfelt honesty, Whatever Will Be, Will Be is more than just a story about football - it's about growing up, holding on and the strange ways sport connects us all.©2025 Felix White Football (American) Football (Soccer) Sports Sports Psychology Funny Heartfelt Witty Game

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All stars
Most relevant
Love this book from start to finish what a fantastic idea and this man can paint perfect pictures with his words.

A must book for any proper football fan

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Whatever Will Be, Will Be is a book I really enjoyed, even though I don’t come to it with much knowledge of football. Felix writes with warmth and clarity, and his voice drew me in straight away. I came to the book knowing him from The Maccabees, a band that soundtracked a big part of my life, and that connection made the reading experience feel instantly familiar.

Felix is turning 40 in the book, and that sense of reflection really resonated with me. I can completely understand that stage of life, even though I’m coming at it from a different perspective, having just had a baby. Reading about his nephew already growing up with an understanding of football highlights how quickly time moves and how traditions, passions, and identity are passed down almost without us noticing.

The book is thoughtful and well written, and you don’t need to be a football fan to enjoy it. At its heart, it’s about time passing, family, and the things that shape us, which makes it warm, relatable, and quietly moving.

A book about growing up and looking back

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Absolutely loved this, it is based around football but it’s more a lovely look at life

A beautiful book!

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I came to this book after hearing Felix White on the Winging It Crystal Palace podcast. As a lifelong Palace supporter, I felt I had to find the audiobook and listen to Felix’s story. He is a Fulham fan, but as he says in the podcast and throughout the book, there are plenty of parallels between our two clubs. Until very recently, neither fanbase had ever really believed that a major trophy win was likely. Hope, yes. Expectation, never.

At times the book reminded me of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch. Not in style, but in the honesty of the emotions. Only football supporters properly understand how irrational the whole thing is. There’s nothing logical about it, but the feelings are real and universal, especially for those of us who follow clubs that aren’t serial winners.

Felix captures that perfectly. When you support a team like Fulham or Crystal Palace, the currency is different. If you’re a Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester City fan, a cup win or a title feels almost standard, part of the natural order. Some people do pick a club because glory is almost guaranteed. Others of us, like Felix and me, didn’t. Palace was my local team. My first match was in 1958 when I was seven. I walked to the ground, introduced by my grandfather. The bond is deep and never really leaves you.

The book reaches its emotional peak when Felix describes watching Palace in the cup final and seeing the supporters in tears. I was one of them, hugging my two sons. He writes about that moment with a mixture of understanding and envy, and it’s beautifully done.

This is not just a book about football. It’s about life, and how football helps carry you through it. How it distracts from the hard parts, how it gives you shared experiences with people you care about, and how it teaches you the difference between disappointment and joy.

I’d recommend this to anyone who knows what it really means to follow a football club, especially those who support one of the less glamorous ones. It’s a wonderful piece of writing and a very human story.

A beautiful, honest portrait of what Football really means

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This is an enjoyable and at times deep and poignant exploration of what football can mean to individuals and communities, as well as the feelings, sense of identity and shared moments that the game can bring. The narration is, at times, breathless, not nevertheless sincere and heartfelt. A reader might see some of their own ties or experiences of football reflected in here, and still learn how the game brings so much to others, even if, as the author points out, it's often pain and disappointment. Overall, well worth a read and reflecting on.

An enjoyable journey into football fandom and feelings

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