I absolutely adored this book and need to read Jonny Garza Villa's other work!

Although I have never been into sports romance, this queer fútbol book was so perfect for me. It is the one sport I am familiar with and getting a more intimate look into it through this book put me in contact with my latinidad. Every reference to Latin media and culture made me laugh and feel seen (the Blue Beetle one was great!). I also really enjoyed the lack of machismo in so many of the characters, since that is unfortunately a concept that plagues many latinos. Pérez and Gabi's dad were surprisingly in touch with their emotions and I appreciated it.

I don't usually read from the perspective of a teenage boy/young man so that aspect was also enlightening. I feel like I was let into a secret club and learned a different view point. Despite the crudeness of some of the jokes between the characters, I still found this book heart wrenching and lovely. A perfect balance of rom, com, and drama.

Thank you so so much to NetGalley for letting me read this gorgeous book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

Jonny is one of my favorite authors so I knew an adult book by them was a must read. I fell in love with Gabi and Vale and his teammates (minus one). This story was so full of love and I was screaming with happiness one minute and then wanting to cry the next minute. The dynamic between Vale and Gabi was so well done. Everyone one their team was so great. Perez was my fave. He was a real ride or die friend.

I liked how this touched on how hard it is to be weird in professional sports. What it feels like to have all eyes on you. Especially if you are brown. It also showed a lot of growth and strength. Gabi is a character you love from the beginning. Full of heart and just wanting to find someone he can be himself with. Gabi’s growth was amazing. I really loved this book and as always I’ll read what Jonny writes.

jonny did their big one with this… an emotional, romantic roller coaster of a book perfect for anyone craving queer sports romance that’s just the perfect amount of spicy and warm-hearted. lovedddd this!!

I loved this book as a sport romance. I loved this book as a latine romance. I loved this book as a queer romance. I love this book as a whole.

There was no skips. There was just passion and love. This book even touched on a subject I always talk about in futbol and how they probably force people into the closet to make the "perfect" futbolista idol.

I loved this so much.

to be honest, this one is hard to rate after i read the entirety of part iv. but after i saw the reviews, i'm glad that some of them are rated it 5 stars.

i love how the story revolves in football. gabi's friends are so funny (especially pérez). and i appreciate gabi and vale's relationship as a couple. it has lessons about the fear of coming out and gabi's connection with philosophy and real life situations. but as i mentioned at the part iv part, i'm literally <b>bawling</b> my eyes out while reading this up until the last line.

but my complaint is that sometimes, i'm disappointed at gabi's actions <spoiler>especially when he believes barrera, his captain after he said some homophobic comments. and yep, that man has no character development.</spoiler>

all in all, it's a heartwarming story (even though i'm still emotional after it ended 🥲)

I absolutely loved Futbolista. As a Hispanic bisexual person myself, this book touched me deeply and felt like it healed a part of me I didn’t even realize needed healing. Gabi’s journey is a powerful, emotional exploration of self-acceptance, and I can’t even begin to express how much I connected with his story.

Gabi’s relationship with his parents was such a beautiful portrayal of love, support, and understanding. It reminded me that our families can be our strongest allies, even when we fear the worst. The bond he shares with them is unwavering, and it's such a comfort to see that kind of unconditional love depicted in the story. As someone who has struggled with the idea of coming out to my own family out of fear, Gabi’s story gave me a sense of hope and healing that I didn’t even know I needed.

The found family element in this book was another standout. Gabi’s teammates, especially Perez and Kat, were absolutely everything. Their support for Gabi is truly heartwarming. They were there for him through thick and thin, and they never judged him. It was a reminder that sometimes the people who aren't related to us by blood become the ones who make us feel truly seen and accepted.

But of course, the heart of the story is the relationship between Gabi and Vale. Their connection was just *everything*. From the very beginning, there was this vulnerability between them that was so raw and real. It was clear how much they cared for one another, and watching that relationship evolve was one of the most beautiful parts of the book. Vale’s unwavering support for Gabi, especially when things got difficult, made me root for them with everything I had. The way they navigated their feelings for each other—so patient, so understanding—was just gorgeous. I loved how this book didn’t shy away from the complexities of being vulnerable, and the growth both characters experienced, especially Gabi, was remarkable. Watching him evolve from page one to page 400 was a testament to how far he came in accepting himself.

What I also really appreciated about this book was how it tackled the complexity of being both part of the LGBTQ+ community and the Hispanic community, especially as an athlete. It’s a topic that isn’t often addressed, and this book highlighted the struggle of reconciling those identities. The pressure to fit into societal expectations, the fear of rejection from family and culture, and the tension of being an athlete in a world that often doesn't accept you fully were all explored in such an honest, raw way. The book touched on how some in the Hispanic community can be set in their ways, with attitudes that are less accepting of queerness, sometimes to the point of disapproval. It even touched on how certain families would refuse to support a player if they found out they were queer, which was a tough but important thing to witness. These moments made me feel seen in a way I didn’t expect, and it’s why I think this book is so important.

This book made me cry multiple times, and I’m not even mad about it. The emotional depth, the tender moments between Gabi and Vale, and the way it so beautifully illustrated the challenges and joys of embracing your true self—Futbolista resonated with me in such a profound way. I honestly loved every page of it, and I know it will stay with me for a long time.

If you like Heartstopper, I recommend Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa.

It’s about Gabi and Vale, two queer Mexican-American freshmen figuring out how to love each other openly, confronting homophobia in their Latino community and Gabi’s soccer team while attending college in South Texas.

At a party, Gabi meets Vale, who is playing a card game where one of the rules is to either take a shot or kiss a stranger. And once their lips meet, Gabi’s world is rocked. He thought he was straight, although there was that one time in high school he kissed a guy and liked it. Suddenly Vale is all Gabi can think about, and his repressed bisexuality comes back to the surface.

Since Gabi is becoming a high profile goalie in a sport that’s known for being anti-gay, they decide to keep their new relationship a secret. But secrets don’t stay that way for long, and then Gabi has to figure out if he can have Vale and his futbol career or hide this part of himself forever.

Oh, Gabi, you gorgeous idiot. This boy thinks he can’t have it all but I love that his teammates/roommates rally around him and get vibes he’s bisexual before he can fully realize it himself! It’s a New Adult romance and there’s lots of self discovery going on, plus Gabi’s identity journey is paralleled with what he’s learning in Philosphy class, with Vale’s help as his tutor. These two were so cute! And I loved the Corpus Christi setting. I used to live there and it was fun seeing the local places mentioned throughout the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Levine Querido for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a fabulous New Adult romance! This was my first introduction to Jonny Garza Villa and I will definitely be browsing earlier works.

I think Gabi as a character was really well done. He is a driven, passionate, sweet, caring, and talented 18 year old just starting college. He has big dreams and bigger talent to back up those dreams. As he begins to understand his queerness, he never meets himself with shame or anger about his bisexuality which I think was really important. Instead he focuses on how queerphobia will impact his life and is angry at that instead of himself. This was a really fresh take on the coming-out storyline (or as mentioned in the book a 'bringing in') as it gave readers a pathway to realize their queerness free of self-loathing which is often a stage we wade through in traditional coming out narratives. What I really loved about this book is how it walks the reader through how intersectionality impacts our main character. Gabi often mentions how him being a Texas-born Mexican and a bi boy feels like a point of conflict for him and the machismo within his culture and potentially family. He speaks on how his race impacts his queerness. This is particularly evident when he discusses other soccer players coming out and how their white privilege offers them a different experience than he anticipates if he were to come out. I am so glad that this point is highlighted throughout the book! So often coming out narratives focus on white gay men where their queerness is the only point of contention from the norm within their identity. While of course these stories are important to hear, they often dominate in our society. To acknowledge the ways that race, class, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality all impact each other is crucial to understanding queer struggle, and I think this book with Gabi's story offers an amazing contribution to the conversation.

My one small point of contention is that I found that the women in the story were sometimes overlooked, especially Gabi's mom. When we only have two women in the whole book and the mom's character is basically all about feeding the men, it felt a bit off for me. I understand that a main point of the book was to break down toxic masculinity and we really see that with the loving relationship between Gabi and his dad, which is of course very valuable. I just wish that Gabi's mom also had time to flourish in the book in a similar way as Gabi's dad did. We did hear of her support outside of food near the end of the book which I appreciated, but I don't know, I wish she had a bit more page time that contributed to her depth as a character.

I also love how we have a non-binary friend and how there is no drama about them or their identity. This was really refreshing to read, especially in our current political climate that demonizes trans and non-binary folks.

I was surprised at how horny this book was! Not only between Gabi and his love interest, but just the roommate friend group in general really encapsulated young-men-first-semester-at-college vibe. There were so many mentions of thighs, friends in underwear, muscles, and just sex in general. I'm not mad at that- in fact I think captures a very realistic friend group- but I was just surprised!

Read this book if you love soccer, shortshorts with muscle thighs, positive male friendship, bi heros who fall fast and hard, and Latino rep in queer stories! If you're a vibes/seasonal reader like me, I recommend to read this book during the fall semester as it takes place throughout the whole term. It would also be great for if you're living / travelling souther US and want a reminder that queer people exist and flourish everywhere.

In all, read this book! Especially if you're a white reader who frequently consumes only white queer stories. This book should be replacing all the 'Love, Simon' esk books on your tbr.

WOW this was good. i would give this a 6/5 if that was possible. touching romance, wonderful characters (every single character had a lot of detail put into them).... 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Jonny Garza Villa’s Futbolista is a beautifully crafted adult romance debut that follows Gabi Pina, an 18-year-old goalie navigating college life and his own identity. Villa skillfully balances humor, emotional depth, and sharp social commentary, tackling themes of machismo, queerness in sports, and self-discovery. Gabi’s journey, driven by his Intro to Philosophy class, feels authentic and relatable, with dialogue that’s fresh and engaging. The Spanish interwoven throughout adds richness, while Villa’s nuanced approach to love and acceptance makes this story both powerful and memorable.

Another 5 🌟 read from Jonny Garza Villa! Futbolista is a book I needed in college. Like Gabi, I was definitely in bi-denial (de-bi-al?) most of my life until some deep introspection during 2020.

Being in a straight-passing relationship doesn't make anyone less bi. Realizing you're bi after marriage or after your early 20s doesn't deminish your identity or feelings.

Anyway let me rave about this book!!

💙 What I loved about Futbolista 💙
● Gabi's growth and inner dialogue throughout
● Vale and his never-ending patience (I woulda snapped at Gabi about 50% in, my Taurus mercury could never)
● Pérez and his hilarious shenanigans and his Naruto running
● the FLIRTING 🫦
● Pops is truly an MVP
● SO MUCH QUEER JOY 🩷
● the fantastic four bromance
● I've never in my life been interested in soc-FOOTBALL until now! ⚽️

If you're looking for a sports romance with Latine characters, queer identity discovery, and a great cast of characters, pick up Futbolista on 4/15/25!!

I had so much fun with this one! A compelling love story between a believably bi college athlete and the gay best friend of his former friend with benefits. Suitably steamy, with plenty of action both on and off the soccer field. I loved the characters, the examination of identity, and the message of being true to yourself. A great coming of age story, and a very fun book!

4 stars

The first quarter plus of this book is heavy on the football/soccer and gives a lot of love triangle vibes which personally was hard to get into. But once things started moving, I really enjoyed this book. The dialogue felt right for the age of the characters without coming off as “hey fellow kids” which was great. I love this author’s YA work so I was excited to read a NA romance and it didn’t disappoint. The philosophy and finding yourself within that storyline was really well done.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

5 stars. Emotionally resonant, unexpectedly steamy, and melding together a coming-of-age story, philosophy, and a love story with all of my favorite tropes, Futbolista is a winning goal of a new adult romance that sets a new gold standard for this genre.

A huge thank you to Levine Querido, Jonny Garza Villa, and NetGalley for the ARC of Futbolista.

In Futbolista, we follow Gabriel Piña as he embarks on his freshman year of college, chasing his dream of making it big in the football world. He thinks he has everything under control. That is until he meets Vale, an openly queer boy, at his first college party. As fate would have it, Vale is also in his philosophy class and best friends with the girl Gabi has been seeing. What follows is a heartfelt friends to lovers and bi awakening story.

I found the pacing a bit slow at first, which made it take me a while to fully get into the story. However, once I did, I really enjoyed it. While the plot was somewhat predictable and had its slower moments, it was undeniably cute and Gabi and Vale deserve to be protected at all costs!

Overall, Futbolista is a fun and sweet read.

My first Jonny Garza Villa book and it will not be my last. Their adult romance debut was amazing!
In Futbolista we met Gabi Pina a futbol player entering college as a freshman and who is the lead goalie for this college underdog team. Fully thinking that at 18 he has life completely figured out what else is there to learn about himself ? Well there is a lot Gabi still needs to figure out.
This book was excellently executed I loved that although the characters in this book are young I never felt that they were immature. There are of course sexual comments and conversations but done in such good taste that it never feels immature or like you stereotypical jock talk.
The characters are diverse ! There is Spanish through out the entire book that made me so happy to read. This book is a GEM!

Thank you Netgalley and Levine Querido for the eARC.

This book gave me all the feels. It was definitely reminiscent of Bend It Like Beckham and Red, White and Royal Blue. From the very first page it hooked me, and I knew I was going to enjoy this read a lot. The MC, Gabriel (Gabi) Piña, is a character that is easy to root for and you just want to hug and protect him. He very much reminded me of Alex from Red, White and Royal Blue with his determination, ally-to-bi-awakening, and humor. I really enjoyed his relationship building with Vale from strangers-to-classmate-to-friends-to-lovers, I was smiling throughout their interactions. They were so sweet with one another, it felt so wholesome. The balance between slice of life and Futbol was well balanced. The scenes where he is training or at a game were fun. I also think the challenge in the plot was very clear and the resolution was realistic. Even the villain, as much as I hate him, had a bit of depth to him. The third act breakup was more heartbreaking than any I’ve read about, Gabi was hurting so much. I also thought the philosophy aspect weaved into the story was nicely done, as it was easy to consume and relate to, and it went well with Gabi’s growth.

As much as I enjoyed the book, there were some glaring flaws. We are first introduced to Leana, a woman in his apartment complex that he starts hooking up with. She got a lot of page time in the beginning but once she decided not to make their relationship official, she disappeared from the book and had a couple very minor appearances. The problem with this was she was very much used as a tool for no other reason than to show how much Gabi is into the opposite sex and that he falls fast, but if you take out her character, nothing would change. It was also interesting that their sex scenes were very closed-door and suggestive, but once the sex was introduced with Vale, it was open-door and had a lot more page time. Which brings me to my next point, once the sex was introduced and everything else seemed to be lacking. His relationship with his roommates were shoved in the trunk, except his friendship with Perez and Kat, but they took a backseat. The ending was a bit rushed to me and I feel like some things should have had screen time or longer screen time, but the sex took up most of the pages at the 70% mark.

Regardless, of those few issues I had, I really liked this book and it was my first Jonny Garza Villa book. I will definitely bump up his other works.

Have not read a bad book by this author. No exception here. Big foray into more adult content, so younger fans should be aware of this going into it. Not a bad thing; rather a refreshing take on a usual formula for the author. Story moves along at a good clip, fully developed main characters (and some underdeveloped side characters, but that's a minor quibble.
For fans of the author, a definite must.

I fell in love with this book immediately. I'm so grateful to Mx Garza Villa for writing it and the entire publishing team for getting this book into the world.

Futbolista is a tremendous and beautiful work that showcases kindness, queerness, and the author's growth as a writer.

It made me cry, laugh, and yell "a huevo" with joy. I hope every queer kid and adult who's struggling with becoming and fighting what can be in order to preserve what was finds and loves this book as much as I do.

Like grass drinking up a bright sunbeam, Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa is warm and irresistible. Intertwining a wonderful, digestible philosophy lesson with the weight of a world of cultural expectations, Futbolista questions if we have to sacrifice ourselves for something that we love, is that really living? (No, no it is not.)

I have never been so in love with a new adult book. Garza Villa’s writing is fluid and realistic, and it is an absolute joy to live inside Gabriel Piña’s head. A love letter to football, Mexican culture, and the young queer experience, this novel is unapologetic in its identity, even as Gabi questions his own. Hilarious and dumb, Gabi and Vale waltz around each other until neither of them can quite take it anymore. Their romance is captivatingly tender—push-and-pull, but not frustrating. Gabi is internal and aware, but still stupid and eighteen, thinking he knows everything about himself that will ever be. I think what I love most about this novel is that it feels real. Gabi is as much of a person as any of us could make him, and even though I’m a white girl from the Midwest, I see so much of myself in him. I am his overwhelming love for his friends, his growing attraction to Vale, his connection with his home, his fear that if he doesn’t hold on tight enough, it could all slip right through his fingers. A must-read for its genre, Futbolista is an integral building block of the safe space young queer people deserve.