Keeper

Keeper is a sports novel for young adults by Mal Peet, published by Walker Books in 2003. It was Peet's first novel and the first of three (as of 2012) football stories featuring South American sports journalist Paul Faustino. Cast as an interview with Faustino, the world's best goalkeeper, El Gato ("The Cat"), tells his life story. Peet won the Branford Boase Award, recognising the year's best debut novel for children. Walker's North American division Candlewick Press published the first US edition in 2005. Danish and Hungarian-language translations were also published that year and followed by German, Italian, and Spanish-language editions. Background Keeper was Peet's first novel, undertaken at age 52 and completed three years later. When he won the 2009 Guardian Prize for his third Paul Faustino football novel, Exposure, he told the sponsoring newspaper he had felt that 'football books for children were "pretty much crap"'. Also, "I used to play all the time. I would play football when it was light and read when it was dark. Now I get to play football vicariously."