If you like Sports Manga or Anime, chances are you're going to enjoy this Graphic Novel. This is very much a Middle Grade Graphic Novel, not really digging into any of the roots of the problems the characters are experiencing rather just brushing over them. Which allows in one hand for this story to be wrapped up nicely within this one volume but on the other means that everything feels very surface level
What I can say is that the art is gorgeous and it was a joy to look at, even when I wasn't finding the story compelling.

While I loved the art in the series so far, I'm not convinced I may pick up more of it. There were some positives like how the story dealt with choices parents make about sending their children overseas and the pressures that come with it. But beyond that, there was very little that kept me glued to the page. It is solid for someone looking to read more sports stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher's for allowing me to read an arc of this comic.

'World Class' by Jay Sandlin with art by Patrick Mulholland is a graphic novel about a young man from Columbia who has dreams of making it big in football.

Adrian Molina loves to play soccer and dreams of playing for Nottingham. When he gets a chance to join Regents United, he is hesitant because he can't afford it, but a talent agent arranges it all for him. Going to a new school in a new country is hard enough without the current star on the team, Titan Evans, giving him a hard time, but with hard work, Molina may just make it work.

This is a mostly paint by numbers sports story that telegraphs every surprise. The agent seems important, then fades into the background, and the cultural stereotypes are embarrassing. The art is fine, but the soccer matches are just like those close fight scenes in movies where you can't actually tell what is happening. This could have been better.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, Maverick, and NetGalley. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Adrian "The Canon" Molina loves football/soccer and he lives in Colombia. He feels a lot of pressure from everyone around him because of how talented he is at the sport and doesn't feel like he can live up to the expectation. Despite this he gets recruited to a London school and gets a scholarship to join their football club. He immediately clashes with their star player before even joining the team. Another player helps him perfect his kick and he makes some friends. Adrian overcomes a lot of typical struggles that would be expected but he handles them well. He and the player he clashes with, Titan Evans, relationship reminds me of one in Ted Lasso. This was an interesting story that I could hand to plenty of teens in my library and the illustrations were fun and easy to follow.

I've never been attracted to a drawing before but Adrian AND his father are...dayum!! 🤣 The artistry is magnificent in this comic! The woman are beautiful too! I enjoyed this comic about a young teenager with a golden foot. Soccer was always my favorite sport to play growing up. Never cared to watch it though. Or any sport.

Short and sweet, but nothing mind-blowing.

I liked the art and story, but it just felt really wishy washy. The pacing wasn't great and I was invested at some key points, but otherwise not my cup of tea. Sadly, this goes in one my least faves of the year. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an e-arc!

Just a mess in terms of plot, worldbuilding, and worst of all the soccer action and art. The game scenes were unrecognizable as actual soccer, the plot made no sense (who is drawing 70,000 fans for a youth game? and why are they connected to schools not clubs?), and while the character journey was good, it was standard sports movie with all the typical ups and downs and overcoming. Very disappointing.

This graphic novel has a lot of beautiful artwork. The colors were so vivid and I loved how the characters were drawn. A lot of the action shots of soccer being played looked so real.
This is a perfect graphic novel for any soccer fan.

"World Class" is cute, sweet, and a little after-school-special-y--but it's really nice to read a story about kids in sports that doesn't so aggressively reinforce the usual high school clique stereotypes. Love to see the LGBTQ+ representation, too--it's refreshing to see queer love stories that aren't automatically tragedies. The art is really beautiful generally, but the thing that struck me the most were the various illustrations of light; they were eye-catching on their own, but the way they were used to enhance the storytelling was on a different level. I found myself staring for long moments, trying to understand how a two-dimensional drawing could give off a glow that powerful. Really cool stuff.

A fun and exciting soccer-themed story that will appeal to tweens and younger teens, especially sports fans and those who never played a sport, but have felt like a fish out of water in the past.

The cover of this book was absolutely STUNNING and so was everything else about it, I loved Adrian as a character! The plot was great and I genuinely loved the plot as well.

This was a cute YA story about a boy coming of age and discovering a world that he is not yet grown enough for.

I think this had a lot of potential but missed the mark in places. I hope that one day the author could expand on the story because I feel like it just needed more. And maybe more dialogue or monologue in the sport scenes...

The characters were quirky and fun in a very youthful way. But the plot was a bit slow for such a short story. Over all it was pretty pictures but for a sports manga I wasn’t drawn into the actual sports part because there wasn’t much depth there. character development and world building was pretty good.

I was provided a free copy via NETGALLEY

This is a great book for a younger kid/teenager who is into soccer. Takes you through the ups and downs and the huge rival game that Adrian Molina needs to win. This book is excellent and so is the cover and the artwork.

I'm not normally a fan of sports-themed graphic novels, but I was pleasantly surprised by the time I finished this title. Adrian Molina is a young Columbian teen who finds himself attending an English prep school in order to make his dream of playing professional soccer come true. Facing plenty of adversity, Adrian must work hard to find his place on the team and deal with the backlash from some of his own teammates. A classic story of working hard to reach your dreams.

World Class is a solid story about working hard for your dreams, friendship, and sportsmanship. Adrian Molina finds himself in a position to make his dream of playing professional soccer come true when an English prep school offers the Colombian a scholarship for playing on their team. He leaves all he knows behind for the high pressure of playing for one of the best teams in the league with enemies and friends on all sides.
The plot is pretty straightforward and doesn't have many surprises, but it moves at a good pace and includes some pretty strong points of action and character development.
The art is honestly nothing to rave about, but it does make each character easily identifiable and the action looks very dynamic so there's also nothing to complain about either.
Overall, it's a quick and entertaining read for younger readers that they'll (h0pefully) walk away from having learned some positive things.

Many happy thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors, Maverick for the very early read!

- graphic novel, ya contemporary, sports, soccer,
- side f|f
- latino mc, sapphic SCs and a diverse casting of characters

i had a fun time reading this story!!
the art was powerful and really conveyed the emotions the characters were going through. the only thing that bothered me is how badly the case of bullying was handled in the story.

cw: bullying, injury, minor blood

This is one excellent graphic comic novel. From the storyline to the artwork, the relationships, the plot. Outstanding job as this book is a clear winner. There is a lot that goes into a story to make it a success and World Class, by Jay Sandlin, covered all the bases. Highly recommended.

World Class is a Young Adult graphic novel by Jay Sandlin, which centers on Adrian Molina, the Colombian Cannon, who received a scholarship to play football for an elite school. Then he meets the rich, powerful, and star of the school’s soccer team, Titan Evans, who immediately sees Adrian as a rival. After numerous bullying incidents from Titan, Adrian suffered anxiety attacks that may derail his scholarship and spot on the team.

Can we talk about that phenomenal cover first? The color, the drawing, the symbolism—just stunning! If you’re like me, who’s absolutely in love with this cover, then you’d love what is inside even more. The colors are popping; they’re vibrant in continuous panels and just a feast to the eye.

Story-wise, the novel doesn’t feel as fresh, but that did not diminish my enjoyment from reading it. I loved Adrian as a character. I loved that he is from Colombia because we don’t get to see many POC main characters.

I also loved that the author tackled important topics such as bullying, racism, and diversity. I think these aspects of the novel are where the author succeeded, making these topics the story’s focus and associating them with what’s happening in the current events.

I wished we got more of Adrian and his friendship with Luciano, I am personally rooting for them, but I loved that the author handled this relationship. The bullying part, which also relates to racism, was uncomfortable to read. As a person of color myself, I was horrified for Adrian. It felt a bit too much, with the supposed adult in the story not doing anything about it.

Overall, the novel is very entertaining. It is evocative in a way, and I wouldn’t mind reading a continuation of Adrian’s story.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Sadly, I was unable to download the ARC. I was excited by the little I could see, though. I'll have to get a hard copy upon publication.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing access to this book in exchange for an honest review.*

I want to start by saying that I am a white American, so I can’t say how accurate any of the representation is of any of the characters.

I enjoyed this story overall. I loved playing football (or, soccer, to me) growing up, and it was fun to read a story with it playing such an important role! For me, though, the best parts were the characters. There was such an interesting cast, between the friends and family in Colombia and the many new teammates and classmates made in London. I didn’t like that Titan got away with so much bullying throughout the whole book, though. I thought it was strange that the coach didn’t do much to stop it, especially since Titan was actively sabotaging the team, repeatedly, by bullying teammates until they quit.

Anyway, I loved the ending! No spoilers, but those last few pages were my favorite.

All in all, did I enjoy reading it? Yes, absolutely. At the same time, I don’t know if I’ll recommend it to anyone, because of how the bullying was handled.