The Mystery Of The Stolen World Cup Trophy by Angela Cervantes

Men’s World Cup season has officially begun! Ever since 1998, this has been THE most exciting global sporting event for me, and even tho this year’s promises to be the worst run and most corrupt tournament of all time, not even that can dampen my love of the sport and the community who actually care about the beautiful game.

With that in mind, I was super happy to dive into Angela Cervantes’ The Mystery of The Stolen World Cup Trophy as part of my preparations/celebrations. I am very pro anything that spreads the joy of the tournament to as many people as possible, and am still a little bitter at all the years I missed out on of this in my youth. This middle grade mystery series definitely transmits that excitement and hopefully entices more than a few bookish kids into finding out more about the beautiful game. Conversely, I hope it also introduces some sports-mad kids to the joys of a good mystery novel, which this definitely is (tho not without certain reservations that I’ll discuss later in this review.)

The story itself revolves around sixth grader Diez Espada, who’s inherited his love of football — tho not, unfortunately, commensurate skill — from his dad and his love of detection from his recently deceased librarian mom. When he and his dad receive exclusive tickets to a party where the actual World Cup trophy will be displayed in Miami, ahead of the 2026 World Cup final, it feels like a dream come true.

Disaster strikes, however, when the trophy is stolen by the international thief known as La Lechuza. Diez is certain that he’ll be able to figure out whodunnit and get the trophy back, with the help of his crush Rio and the actual detective on the case, the world-famous Detective Enzo. But there’ll be more than one tricky conundrum in his path as he figures out how to navigate a surprisingly treacherous field.

I’ll freely admit that I found the opening of this book pretty rough, as both an Arsenal fan and as a female fan of the game. I get that the author wants to draw in the kids engaged in the seemingly perpetual question of who’s the Greatest Of All Time, CR7 or Messi, but they’re both terrible people who don’t deserve to be idolized in this way. Messi might have won more awards, but he’s also a whiny bitch of a player who constantly plays up to the ref. CR7 might be more my style of player, but he’s also an admitted rapist, and just looking at him makes me sick. Both players are happy to toady up to fascist-leaning politicians, so quite frankly they can both go to hell.

Also, the ONLY answer to the question of which football player is the Greatest Of All Time is Pele. Duh. And the book does acknowledge this but says he’s “one” of the GOATs, like, girl, please.

Speaking of girls, I’m hoping that Diez’ cluelessness about how his school’s girls’ team is treated in comparison to the boys’ was the author’s way of opening readers’ eyes to the discrimination that the women’s game has historically received and continues to experience. It has gotten really hard for me to support the USWNT after the absolutely shitty display of Ugly Americanism at the 2019 Women’s World Cup (that team went downhill in class after Abby Wambach retired) but I do give props to them for fighting for equal pay and recognition, thereby lowering barriers worldwide.

Lol, my reviews of football-related books always turn into axe-grinding sessions, but I really do recommend this as a mystery kids can get into. Part of the whodunnit is pretty obvious, but it definitely gets more interesting and twisty as the book progresses, with a lot of cool football info included. I especially admired the ways in which Diez applied the lessons he’d learned on the pitch to problem-solving. Plus, Declan Reed? If that isn’t grudging homage from a plastic (iykyk) to my kids’ future stepdad Declan Rice, then I owe Ms Cervantes a beer. Actually, I’d buy her a beer just for her prediction that Messi won’t actually make it to the final as anything but a spectator, lol.

The kickoff whistle just blew! See you on the other side of the tourney, everyone!

The Mystery Of The Stolen World Cup Trophy by Angela Cervantes was published May 5 2026 and is available from all good booksellers, including