Extra Time: An M/M gay romance between professional footballers, with secrets, slow burn and a happy ending at the World Cup (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798186560814)

Oliver "Ollie" Price is called up to the World Cup because another man breaks. A left-footed centre-back, spare, brilliant and no friend to the spotlight, Ollie knows how to close passing lanes better than he knows how to open doors. He wants only one thing: to play for England without being reduced to a stopgap, a starter, or a suspicion. Then Jamie Whitmore appears: captain, star, advert-ready smile and a tactical problem with legs. The man Ollie should not look at for too long.

Jamie has spent years as the tabloids' favourite bachelor while hiding the one truth that could cost him the captaincy. In the England camp, every corridor has cameras, every press conference is out for blood, and every gesture between two team-mates can become a national story. When the chemistry between Jamie and Ollie can no longer be contained on the pitch, desire becomes a risk: to their careers, to the dressing room, to the secret they have both learnt to manage as if it were another injury.

Between training sessions, fortified hotels, dressing-room banter and matches that could break their bodies, Ollie and Jamie will have to decide what it means to love each other when the world does not allow them to make mistakes. Because winning the World Cup is difficult enough. Loving the England captain without losing yourself may be the real extra time.

WHAT AWAITS YOU IN THESE PAGES?

• An M/M gay romance between professional footballers: Two England players confront desire in the one place where they cannot afford to lose control.
• Slow burn with dressing-room tension: Looks held a little too long, tactical corrections that brush against care, and hands drawn back before a camera can turn them into evidence.
• The football World Cup as a pressure cooker: hotels, flights, press conferences, security, fan zones and decisive matches push the relationship to its limit.
• Forbidden love under the tabloids' glare: Jamie lives as a public brand, while Ollie fears his career will be reduced to a headline about his sexuality.
• Rivals, team-mates and tactical language: Football is not decoration for the romance; it provokes it, complicates it, and becomes the language they both understand before they dare to speak.
• Found family with team humour: Ben, Sophie, Lottie, Reece, David and the dressing room hold the story together with jokes, biscuits, protocols and uncomfortable truths.
• A happy ending with chosen privacy: There is no compulsory outing as proof of love; there is shared strategy, a safe circle, and a relationship that does not demand either man disappear.

Author: A. M. Scarlett
ISBN-13: 9798186560814
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 07/09/2026
Pages: 354
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.04lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.79d