Coming in June: The Best of Grant Wahl

Celebrate Grant’s life and legacy with WORLD CLASS: PURPOSE, PASSION, AND THE PURSUIT OF GREATNESS ON AND OFF THE FIELD, available for preorder now.

Dear Friends of Grant,

Fútbol with Grant Wahl has been dormant since we lost Grant to an aortic aneurysm at the World Cup in Qatar in December 2022. But as someone who followed Grant’s work on the site, you deserve to be among the first to know the news about my late husband and your great friend, and this seems the best way to reach the most people who cared about Grant as possible.

I’m excited to share that on June 4^th, Ballantine Books will publish WORLD CLASS: PURPOSE, PASSION, AND THE PURSUIT OF GREATNESS ON AND OFF THE FIELD. The book is more than a collection of Grant’s finest work. It’s also an account of how he made his way in the journalism trade, as well as a master class in how to practice sportswriting with old-school values in the digital age.

I wrote the foreword and worked closely with the team that brought about this celebration of Grant’s life and legacy. The editor and the agent on his two previous books, Mary Reynics and Chris Parris-Lamb, enthusiastically championed the project, and two of his longtime colleagues at Sports Illustrated, Mark Mravic and Alexander Wolff, selected and introduced the text. The project was truly a labor of love, embraced by those who knew Grant well and believed in his work.

WORLD CLASS is available for preorder now wherever books are sold. Proceeds from its sale will help establish a journalism award at Princeton University in Grant’s name to fund the work of promising writers whose ambition shouldn’t be limited by the means of their families. In 1995, a similar benefactor allowed Grant to travel to Argentina to research his college thesis—a trip that kindled his passion for soccer and for finding and telling stories, and indeed inspired a few of the pieces collected in WORLD CLASS. I know Grant would be beaming at this effort to collect his body of work and pay it forward at the same time.

As we approach publication day, look for Grant’s Substack to become a hub for news about the book, including reviews, upcoming events, and reaction from the many early champions of WORLD CLASS, including Megan Rapinoe, LeBron James, and Brendan Hunt.

I hope you’ll continue to keep Grant in your thoughts, and that you’ll consider picking up WORLD CLASS in the spirit that it’s intended—as a way to share his legacy with others.

With my heartfelt thanks,

Céline Gounder