CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

SOCCER IQ

Dan Blank didn’t plan to be a soccer coach or a best-selling author. But after stumbling into coaching almost by accident, Blank began thinking about how written resources could help coaches and players, alike, play the game of soccer with a bit more acumen. In 2012, when self-publishing had become more common, Blanks wrote and published Soccer IQ: Things That Smart Players Do. Sales were initially modest, but some well placed promotion launched Soccer IQ onto the bestsellers list and made it one of the most purchased soccer books in America.

Blank’s title underscored a growing wave of both soccer literature as well as the beginning of other self-published resources about the game, such as training courses and videos. With an abundance of information available for Americans to access and consume, there were new ways to get smart and catch up on a game historically more accessible in other countries.

Blank joined Founding Futbol to talk about how he came to write Soccer IQ, discuss some of his other titles, and more.