The Penalty

Blurb

The Penalty is a sports novel for young adults by Mal Peet, published by Walker Books in 2006. It is the second football stories featuring South American sports journalist Paul Faustino. The teen football prodigy El Brujito disappears without a trace and Faustino is drawn to the mystery. He unfolds the story behind the disappearance.
Walker's North American division Candlewick Press published the first U.S. edition in 2005. A German-language translation was published in 2008.
Peet and The Penalty made the 2007 Booktrust Teenage Prize shortlist.
For the next Faustino football book, Peet won the 2009 Guardian Prize and explained to the sponsoring newspaper about his second career that he had felt 'football books for children were "pretty much hey"'. 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."