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Up Pohnpei: A Quest to Reclaim the Soul of Football by Leading the World's Ultimate Underdogs to Glory
After one too many late night discussions, football journalist Paul Watson and his mate Matthew Conrad decide to find the world's worst national team, become naturalised citizens of that country and play for them - achieving their joint boyhood dream of playing international football and winning a 'cap'. They are thrilled when Wikipedia leads them to Pohnpei, a tiny, remote island in the Pacific whose long-defunct football team is described as 'the weakest in the world'. They contact Pohnpei's Football Association and discover what it needs most urgently is leadership. So Paul and Matt travel thousands of miles, leaving behind jobs, families and girlfriends to train a rag-tag bunch of novice footballers who barely understand the rules of the game.Up Pohnpei tells the story of their quest to coach the team and eventually, organise an international fixture - Pohnpei's first since a 16-1 defeat many years ago. With no funding, a population whose obesity rate is 90 percent and toad-infested facilities in one of the world's wettest climates, their journey is beset by obstacles from the outset. Part travelogue, part quest, Up Pohnpei shows how the passion and determination of two young men can change the face of football - and the lives of total strangers - on the other side of the world.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
May 14, 2023
Started this book this morning and couldn’t put it down the whole day. I enjoy all football books, but there is something about first hand narrative accounts regarding football that is incredibly fascinating! Especially when they have unbelievable and compelling story such as this one. How many people can say they have managed a national football team? The book hits home with the childlike innocent we have as kids of what ifs and buts, yet Paul and Matt weren’t ready to call quits and achieved what seemed to be impossible. The book flows so well, with moments of humor, melancholy, joy and the outright unbelievable and that’s what makes it so enjoyable and compelling read. Highly recommended.
Now if only Paul will write one on his Mongolian football exploits 😉
Now if only Paul will write one on his Mongolian football exploits 😉
November 8, 2018
One of the best football books I've ever read. Could not put it down. The story itself seemed to unfold so naturally I almost felt as if I were reading a novel. Watson has good material to work with in terms of real events, but he structures the book well and is a good enough writer to carry the book through. Fantastic stuff and I hope the Federated States of Micronesia can be accepted into FIFA some time in the future!
October 12, 2026
Certainly not going to win any awards for its prose but a football book which has a Pompey reference in the title is always going to win me over
September 1, 2016
3.5
I really salute what the author attempted to do. Two football mad friends from England want to become International footballers, they realize that the only way to do this is to find the worst team in the world and play for them. They attempt to revive a moribund football program on the island of Pohnpei which is part of Micronesia in the Western Pacific. Upon arriving the author realizes that the raw material he has to work with is so bad he's better off using his time teaching the game to the local inhabitants. Very quickly his dream changes to becoming an International football coach, and taking on Pohnpei's better funded neighbors Guam in an effort to get FIFA to take notice and give them some much needed grant money. This book should be read by anyone who truly loves the beautiful game and travel. However, the end of the book is seriously anti-climactic after all the wonderful build up. Some people would say it's more about the journey then the destination. Probably sadly for me, I'm not one of those people.
I've read that Paul Watson has since moved to Mongolia and is helping coach team there. I'd love to read that book when it's written.
I really salute what the author attempted to do. Two football mad friends from England want to become International footballers, they realize that the only way to do this is to find the worst team in the world and play for them. They attempt to revive a moribund football program on the island of Pohnpei which is part of Micronesia in the Western Pacific. Upon arriving the author realizes that the raw material he has to work with is so bad he's better off using his time teaching the game to the local inhabitants. Very quickly his dream changes to becoming an International football coach, and taking on Pohnpei's better funded neighbors Guam in an effort to get FIFA to take notice and give them some much needed grant money. This book should be read by anyone who truly loves the beautiful game and travel. However, the end of the book is seriously anti-climactic after all the wonderful build up. Some people would say it's more about the journey then the destination. Probably sadly for me, I'm not one of those people.
I've read that Paul Watson has since moved to Mongolia and is helping coach team there. I'd love to read that book when it's written.
March 25, 2025
Lovely
June 30, 2025
Goed simpel leesvoer!
December 21, 2014
Around the World = Federated States of Micronesia (Pohnpei)
Paul and Matt love football. And not just playing the beautiful game, but all the associated minutiae, statistics, trivia. In their mid-20's, they have accepted that they'll never represent England in the top flight, but can't quite resist the opportunity for one last chance at glory.
They travel to the Pacific island of Pohnpei, to discover a tropical climate combining torrential rainfall and relentless humidity, a population plagued by obesity and addiction to betel nut, and a pitch infested with toads.
The book is light-hearted and enjoyable, and not just for football fans.
Paul and Matt love football. And not just playing the beautiful game, but all the associated minutiae, statistics, trivia. In their mid-20's, they have accepted that they'll never represent England in the top flight, but can't quite resist the opportunity for one last chance at glory.
They travel to the Pacific island of Pohnpei, to discover a tropical climate combining torrential rainfall and relentless humidity, a population plagued by obesity and addiction to betel nut, and a pitch infested with toads.
The book is light-hearted and enjoyable, and not just for football fans.
July 24, 2019
Very enjoyable book about grass-shoots football (grass roots would make it seem more advanced than it is) wherein a sports reporter puts his money where his mouth is and plays some real life fantasy football management. The team he sketches are a real collection of individuals who you will end up really rooting for, flaws and all.
May 9, 2020
Spent a year with Paul in Verona circa 2006 and if we weren’t playing football, we were watching it or if we weren’t doing that we were playing Football Manager. He ate, drank, slept football which is why it didn’t surprise me in the least when he undertook this adventure with Matt into absolute obscurity. It’s an incredible read, absolute page turner with an amazing climax to it.
May 2, 2021
A wonderful story of the development of football on a small island in the Pacific, it's a humble retelling of how hard it was to even get Pohnpei to be able to play a few matches off the island, not to mention coaching a dozen players to the point where it was possible. Well-written, well-told.
August 30, 2018
My heart could not even handle this book. I closed it at 2 am with 50 pages left to read, and barely slept with the need to finish it. This book is a hero’s journey and everything I love about football and the idiots who love football more than I do.
May 3, 2020
Mark Watson's brother is a football nerd who puts his boots where his mouth is. A great yarn, expertly told with so much passion and adoration for his subject. Paul now helps out with CONIFA, the football body for smaller nations.
May 23, 2021
The story is a solid 5 starts. Its a very unique and interesting story, and if you like football you'll love this book! The writing and the pacing of this story isn't as captivating as I hoped but the story definitely helped it out a lot, so I'm only giving this 4 stars.
September 11, 2016
bence özellikle futbol meraklılarının kesinlikle okuması gereken sürükleyici ve tamamıyla gerçek hayat hikayesi
July 6, 2019
An enjoyable read about the distances some people will go for their love of the beautiful game.
September 30, 2019
Great!
Lovely read, well written,informative and entertaining! A real heartwarming true story!
These chaps have bravery up to their considerably sided cojones!
Lovely read, well written,informative and entertaining! A real heartwarming true story!
These chaps have bravery up to their considerably sided cojones!
October 20, 2020
Read the whole book in about three hours as I couldn't put it down. If you like travel writing and you like football (soccer) then you will love this book.
March 3, 2022
A must read for any football fan.
March 5, 2019
In the early summer of 2018 the CONIFA World Cup, the World Cup for countries that aren't actually countries, took place in London. Finding the concept fascinating, and never being one for missing out on a bit of football happening in my area, I just had to take advantage.
It's safe to say it exceeded my expectations. Not just the football on display, which held a solid technical standard, albeit accompanied by some shortcomings fitness-wise, as games tended to fade out towards the end. No, the most pleasant surprise was the supporter culture. From the Tibet fans' joy at being able to represent and support their nation to the Hungarian ultras backing the various teams of ethnic Magyars from outside the country's borders. One of the latter eventually won the tournament as Karpatalya (Hungarians in western Ukraine) beat Northern Cyprus on a shoot-out in the final, with me only metres away, on a stand rocking with Hungarian enthusiasm amidst red, white and green smoke.
On my way home to Central London (Or more central than Enfield anyway), I was asked for directions by two fellow fans of fringe football who were going the same way, Phil from Yorkshire and an Italian guy whose name escapes me. As we joined forces on a bus taking us to the Piccadilly line, we got chatting about the tournament, and they told me about how they had once gone to western Zimbabwe to train with the players from Matabeleland, another CONIFA participant. When asked about what on earth drove them to this, Phil told me about Up Pohnpei.
I knew I had to read this book, so for the last nine months, whenever I was in a bookshop I trawled the sports section looking for it (Out of principle I avoid ordering books online). For long I was unsuccessful, but last week I finally found it hiding at the bottom of a corner shelf in Waterstones. My oh my, was it worth the wait. Light-hearted yet heartfelt, bitingly sarcastic yet hugely passionate. The enjoyment of the game, the pride in one's identity and the euphoria of seemingly insignificant victories that I'd seen in the CONIFA World Cup were recognisable throughout. If you're a football fan, you will love this book to pieces. If you're not, I'm surprised that you've read this far, but I would still recommend it if you
A. Are an admirer of British humour.
B. Like a good underdog story but hate Hollywood clichés.
C. Believe that just because something is unimportant, it does not mean that it doesn't matter.
Or any of the three, really. Read the book, that's what I'm trying to say.
So thank you, Paul Watson. And thanks to Phil, Phil's Italian friend, CONIFA, as well as everyone else who helps making the beautiful game even more beautiful.
It's safe to say it exceeded my expectations. Not just the football on display, which held a solid technical standard, albeit accompanied by some shortcomings fitness-wise, as games tended to fade out towards the end. No, the most pleasant surprise was the supporter culture. From the Tibet fans' joy at being able to represent and support their nation to the Hungarian ultras backing the various teams of ethnic Magyars from outside the country's borders. One of the latter eventually won the tournament as Karpatalya (Hungarians in western Ukraine) beat Northern Cyprus on a shoot-out in the final, with me only metres away, on a stand rocking with Hungarian enthusiasm amidst red, white and green smoke.
On my way home to Central London (Or more central than Enfield anyway), I was asked for directions by two fellow fans of fringe football who were going the same way, Phil from Yorkshire and an Italian guy whose name escapes me. As we joined forces on a bus taking us to the Piccadilly line, we got chatting about the tournament, and they told me about how they had once gone to western Zimbabwe to train with the players from Matabeleland, another CONIFA participant. When asked about what on earth drove them to this, Phil told me about Up Pohnpei.
I knew I had to read this book, so for the last nine months, whenever I was in a bookshop I trawled the sports section looking for it (Out of principle I avoid ordering books online). For long I was unsuccessful, but last week I finally found it hiding at the bottom of a corner shelf in Waterstones. My oh my, was it worth the wait. Light-hearted yet heartfelt, bitingly sarcastic yet hugely passionate. The enjoyment of the game, the pride in one's identity and the euphoria of seemingly insignificant victories that I'd seen in the CONIFA World Cup were recognisable throughout. If you're a football fan, you will love this book to pieces. If you're not, I'm surprised that you've read this far, but I would still recommend it if you
A. Are an admirer of British humour.
B. Like a good underdog story but hate Hollywood clichés.
C. Believe that just because something is unimportant, it does not mean that it doesn't matter.
Or any of the three, really. Read the book, that's what I'm trying to say.
So thank you, Paul Watson. And thanks to Phil, Phil's Italian friend, CONIFA, as well as everyone else who helps making the beautiful game even more beautiful.
August 5, 2018
Up Pohnpei: A quest to reclaim the soul of football by leading the world's ultimate underdogs to glory (2012) by Paul Watson is a charming tale of two Englishmen's epic quest for football in Micronesia.
Paul and his mate Matt are two football mad friends in their early twenties who first start out to see if they can find a country small enough that they could play international football for them. It seems the two have played at a pretty respectable level in their youth. They look through the stats and find Pohnpei, a tiny Micronesian nation that they realise they couldn't play for but could possibly coach.
They make the amazing trip around the world to try and get something going and manage to get some interest going in the game. Paul then returns and really starts to train the team and get a Pohnpeian team going and does manage. He gets various locals into the game, establishes a league there and then with the help of a few key players and the return of his friend manages to get things really moving for football in Pohnpei.
It's really quite cinematic in feel and would make a charming screen adaptation.
For anyone who is into football and has pondered what could be done with a small nation there really is something here. It's well written and enjoyable.
Paul and his mate Matt are two football mad friends in their early twenties who first start out to see if they can find a country small enough that they could play international football for them. It seems the two have played at a pretty respectable level in their youth. They look through the stats and find Pohnpei, a tiny Micronesian nation that they realise they couldn't play for but could possibly coach.
They make the amazing trip around the world to try and get something going and manage to get some interest going in the game. Paul then returns and really starts to train the team and get a Pohnpeian team going and does manage. He gets various locals into the game, establishes a league there and then with the help of a few key players and the return of his friend manages to get things really moving for football in Pohnpei.
It's really quite cinematic in feel and would make a charming screen adaptation.
For anyone who is into football and has pondered what could be done with a small nation there really is something here. It's well written and enjoyable.
December 27, 2023
Wonderful. This book was a lucky find for me - I stumbled upon it through the author's growing Twitter presence and I'm thrilled I did.
"Up Pohnpei" is a refreshing and captivating story that had me completely absorbed. I felt myself living vicariously through Watson as I sped through the pages. As someone who has forever been interested in non-"Big League" football, I found it so interesting to hear about footballing on... admittedly... an island I had never heard of.
Hearing how Paul & Matt fostered footballing on a small, mostly non-footballing island, was incredibly entertaining. The tenacity at which they bounded towards their goal left it no surprise to see their success later in the book.
And THAT EPILOGUE - oh my goodness, what a masterful conclusion! It is absolutely dripping in charm, and serves as a heartwarming, fitting finale to an impeccably woven tale. Bravo.
I’ve seen recently that the author is planning another book, this one about his time in Mongolia. Well, Mr. Watson, I'll be grabbing this on day one!
"Up Pohnpei" is a refreshing and captivating story that had me completely absorbed. I felt myself living vicariously through Watson as I sped through the pages. As someone who has forever been interested in non-"Big League" football, I found it so interesting to hear about footballing on... admittedly... an island I had never heard of.
Hearing how Paul & Matt fostered footballing on a small, mostly non-footballing island, was incredibly entertaining. The tenacity at which they bounded towards their goal left it no surprise to see their success later in the book.
And THAT EPILOGUE - oh my goodness, what a masterful conclusion! It is absolutely dripping in charm, and serves as a heartwarming, fitting finale to an impeccably woven tale. Bravo.
I’ve seen recently that the author is planning another book, this one about his time in Mongolia. Well, Mr. Watson, I'll be grabbing this on day one!
February 9, 2019
Interesting story but lacks pace
This has an interesting premise. However once the initial introduction is over, there are a lot of descriptions of bad football playing (I suppose to convey the enormity of the task) and fish out of water ‘westerner on remote tropical island’ material which doesn’t translate well to the page and regularly left me wondering why I was bothering reading it.
I think it would actually make a better film than a book, like Eddie the Eagle or Cool Runnings.
If you’re really into football, and I mean REALLY into football, there might be something here for you.
This has an interesting premise. However once the initial introduction is over, there are a lot of descriptions of bad football playing (I suppose to convey the enormity of the task) and fish out of water ‘westerner on remote tropical island’ material which doesn’t translate well to the page and regularly left me wondering why I was bothering reading it.
I think it would actually make a better film than a book, like Eddie the Eagle or Cool Runnings.
If you’re really into football, and I mean REALLY into football, there might be something here for you.
March 30, 2024
This is a fun book for those who like the non-commercialized football. Football played for the sake of the game...the romantic football. It details the adventures to set up a football league in one of the Micronesian Islands and an attempt to have a FIFA-recognized Micronesian football federation. What I find interesting is that there are still some UN members without FIFA-recognized national teams. There is also a bit of culture about Pohnpei, the 3rd wettest place on Earth. I read this after watching Next Goal Wins about American Samoa, and it is quite good. At times, the details of everything going on are quite slow in the book, but still a solid book, I'd recommend.
April 25, 2021
A book that was recommended from the football ramble podcast. Paul has a sincere love for football and that transmits through each chapter. Action is quite sparse and there are times where you don't quite feel a dramatic tension, but it is not that kind of a novel, more about the experience, and the daring that he took to follow his love of football. A good read and once I'd recommend to anyone interested in football, or seeking inspiration for a leap of faith!
December 31, 2023
Fantastic book from a superb writer who brings whit and humour to an unusual life choice. It’s a book I binged and actually engaged with Paul Watson via social media to the point I’ve even acquired one of the Pohnpei shirts from Paul.
October 8, 2025
A must read for anyone who loves football.
It got me thinking that with all over-commercialisation of the professional game, perhaps the true beauty and spirit of the beautiful game actually reside in amateur football.
It got me thinking that with all over-commercialisation of the professional game, perhaps the true beauty and spirit of the beautiful game actually reside in amateur football.
July 20, 2021
4.5
An early chapter detracted from football & the Pohnpeians a little too much, but overall a fantastic story with great personalities and so much heart throughout.
An early chapter detracted from football & the Pohnpeians a little too much, but overall a fantastic story with great personalities and so much heart throughout.
August 23, 2023
A great story, adequately written.
August 28, 2023
If you’ve ever seen Next Goal Wins (the documentary) - it’s like that, but with more frogs. Finished it in a day, loved it
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews