Thomas Dooley
Book cover: The Truth About Success in Soccer No One Teaches by Thomas D. Dooley
The book For the player For the parent

The Truth About Success in Soccer No One Teaches.

One hundred pages. Five keys. Forty years on the field and the sideline, written down at last — for the player who's serious, and the parent who's guiding one.

$24.99
Hardcover · Amazon Free U.S. shipping with Prime
Buy hardcover on Amazon → Or paperback $14.99 on books.by →
↓ Read a chapter free
Pages117
PublishedMarch 2025
Reading time≈ 2 hours
LanguagesEN · DE (2026)
01 — About the book

What it is. What it isn't.

This is not another book on technique. It is not a book on tactics. It is the one chapter that the other coaching books skip — and the one that, in forty years on the field, I have seen separate the careers that worked from the careers that didn't.

At nineteen, in a village in the German Pfalz, I started a notebook of what successful people had in common. I found five things — goal, plan, action, belief, vision — that kept recurring. Six months later, I signed my first professional contract. Eight years later, the Bundesliga. Then the World Cup, captaining the United States, twice.

This book is that notebook, written down. The story is mine; the method is portable. It works in football, and the parents who have used it tell me it works in school, in business, in anywhere a young person has to outwork a fear of failure.

One hundred pages. No filler. No fluff. The five keys, told as my story — and at the end of each chapter, the work the player and the parent do that week.

02 — Table of contents

Twelve chapters. The notebook, in order.

  1. 00

    A note before you start.

    Who I wrote this for, and how to read it as a player or as a parent.

    p. 1
  2. 01

    The toolmaker's village.

    Eleventh division, two trainings a week, the fields nobody wanted. Where the notebook started.

    p. 7
  3. 02

    The four pillars.

    Technique, tactics, fitness, mentality. Why every coach you've met trains three, and what the fourth costs you.

    p. 13
  4. 03

    Key 01 — Goal.

    The specific picture. Why "be the best" doesn't work and what does. Preview below ↓

    p. 21
  5. 04

    Key 02 — Plan.

    What you do, what you don't do, what you train. Written down or it isn't a plan.

    p. 33
  6. 05

    Key 03 — Action.

    Carrying out the plan, in the rain, the morning after, the loss before. No shortcuts.

    p. 45
  7. 06

    Key 04 — Belief.

    Conviction, not hope. Where it comes from in a 16-year-old who has never been picked.

    p. 57
  8. 07

    Key 05 — Vision.

    The dream, made visible. Seeing yourself there before you arrive. The two minutes every night that change everything.

    p. 69
  9. 08

    For the parent.

    The car ride, the trials, the conversation with your child's coach. What to say, and what not to.

    p. 79
  10. 09

    This week, this month, this season.

    A practical timeline — what you and the player do, in what order, starting Monday.

    p. 89
  11. 10

    The captain.

    What captaincy actually is, and why your child should learn it whether or not they wear the armband.

    p. 95
  12. 11

    A note after the last page.

    Where to take this next — mentorship, the program, or the road on your own.

    p. 99
03 — Read a chapter

Chapter 03 · Goal.
The opening pages.

The first spread of the first key — set the way it appears in the book. The chapter runs twelve pages; these are the two that set it up. If you want the rest, the link is right where you'd expect.

The Truth About Success in Soccer No One Teaches 20
— Chapter 03 —

Goal.

The first key.

The first thing I wrote down, that night in 1980 in a small office in the Pfalz, was the word goal. I did not write "be successful." I did not write "be a footballer." I wrote — and I remember the line — Bundesliga, in five years.

Specific. With a number. A picture I could see when I closed my eyes. That is what a goal is. The rest is decoration.

Every player I have ever coached who has gone on to do something with the game has known the same thing: where they were headed, in a sentence, with a date. Every player I have lost to the middle of the table has had a different answer — a longer one, a vaguer one, or no answer at all.

I do not believe in dreams. I believe in goals. A dream is a goal that you will not name and will not date. The difference between the two — between the player who arrives and the player who almost did — is whether the page in the notebook was filled in.

p. 20 · Goal · Key 01
Chapter 03 · Goal 21

So when a 14-year-old player sits in front of me and says he wants to be a footballer, I ask him for his sentence. Where, when, what level. Most cannot answer me on the first try. We sit with it for a while. By the end of the afternoon, he has a sentence. We write it on the inside of the front cover of his notebook so that he sees it every time he opens the book to take notes from training.

Then I ask him a harder question — and this is the one I also ask the parents, because for the parents it is even more useful. What does that goal cost? Two trainings a week is not enough; what is enough? What does the player have to give up to get there? What does the family have to give up? Most goals fall down at this question. The ones that survive it have a chance.

"I do not believe in dreams. I believe in goals. A dream is a goal that you will not name and will not date."

This is not a hard idea. It is one sentence. But the players who actually do it — who sit down on a Sunday evening and write the sentence and pay its price — are very few. Be one of those few.

The work, this week.

  1. Player. Write your goal in one sentence. Include a level, a date, and one thing you must give up to reach it.
  2. Parent. Ask your child for the sentence on Sunday. Do not edit it. Write your own.
  3. Together. Read both sentences out loud. Tape them to the inside of the front cover of the notebook.
p. 21 · Goal · Key 01
— End of free preview · Chapter continues, plus 4 more keys, in the book —
Continue with the hardcover · $24.99 → Or paperback $14.99 on books.by  →
Prefer the free 5-Keys PDF first?  →
04 — In their words

Read by the people who would know.

"My sons trained under Dooley and reached collegiate and pro levels. This book is what he was teaching them, set down for everyone."

Jeff WilliamsonFather of two former players

"Thomas played a key role in my development. The mindset he taught me, now in these pages, helped shape my path all the way to the professional level."

Thomas WilliamsonProfessional player · former youth player

"Weekly sessions with Thomas helped me handle football situations better. We set goals together. Becoming a pro was one. I achieved it."

Reece GaylordProfessional player

"He tailored my training and helped me build both physical and mental strength — guiding me to achieve my soccer goals."

Jacob AmonCollege athlete
05 — The author

Thomas Dooley.

Thomas Dooley with a championship trophy.
Author photograph · 2025

Two-time FIFA World Cup captain. Fourteen years in the Bundesliga. UEFA Cup winner. 1993 U.S. Soccer Male Athlete of the Year. 2010 National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee.

Currently Head Coach of the Bangladesh national team — his fourth national federation, after the Philippines, Vietnam, and Guyana. Founder of the TD5 Method, an online program for players and the parents who guide them.

German-American. Lives between Dhaka, Los Angeles, and the road. The Truth About Success in Soccer No One Teaches is his first book.

Speaking  → Mentorship  → Press inquiries  →
— One last thing

If a single line on this page felt useful,
the book is one hundred more.

Hardcover $24.99 on Amazon, or paperback $14.99 on books.by. Or read the free 5-Keys PDF and decide afterward.

Buy hardcover on Amazon → Or paperback $14.99 on books.by  → Get the free PDF first  →