Jonny Garza Villa is a product of the Great State of Texas, born and raised near and along the Gulf Coast; they are a Sagittarius sun, Capricorn everything else; an avid Dungeons & Dragons player; and they are an award-winning author of contemporary young adult and new adult novels inspired by their own Tejane & Chicane and queer identities including Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun, Ander & Santi Were Here, Canto Contigo, the forthcoming anthology This is How We Roll, and their debut new adult romance Futbolista.
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Jonny Garza Villa
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Futbolista
Gabriel Piña knows who he is: a college goalkeeper, a future Liga MX or MLS star, and definitely straight. He’s starting his freshman year with a lot of eyes on him and even more potential, but he’s got this. Nothing will have him straying off the path to greatness.
That is, until his philosophy classmate Vale volunteers to tutor him. Vale, the same guy who Gabi, in a moment of history repeating itself, might’ve kissed very briefly—and only once—just to help him out at a party. Vale, the smart, supportive, compassionate new friend with beautiful brown eyes and a smile that keeps Gabi, for completely inexplicable reasons, constantly in a daydream.
As a friendship blooms and the two spend more and more time together, Gabi finally begins to recognize something about himself: maybe he’s not as straight as he thought he was. But a larger and darker realization lingers. Someone like Gabi—a brown, Mexican futbolista with dreams of playing for El Tri—can’t also be bisexual. He’s seen the way his teammates and community react to queerness in their sport. It would be the exact type of straying off path that destroys his future.
Or, maybe Gabi could be brave enough to embrace all those parts of himself and forge his own path, one that includes a boyfriend and the beautiful game.
A sports romance for those who keep rewatching "Bend It Like Beckham" and rereading "Red, White & Royal Blue" and the incredible collection of queer soc—football romances out there, "Futbolista" follows the first semester of one guy's freshman year of college, navigating who he is, who he’s allowed to be, and who he wants to be.
