Vallejo native Chris Navalta publishes children’s book about soccer greats

VALLEJO — With the FIFA World Cup final slated to be played in New York this July, soccer will be top of mind for sports enthusiasts in the United States. And Vallejo native Chris Navalta wanted to make sure that kids would be inspired to follow the sport and pursue their own dreams.

Navalta’s book “From Challenge to Champion. Inspiring Stories of Soccer Greats,” which came out April 7, highlights the stories of 12 soccer superstars who overcame great challenges.

The book, conceived for 6 to 9 year olds, is written in accessible language and every story is illustrated. Navalta also includes a glossary at the beginning to teach kids the most important terms and rules of the game.

“It’s considered a sports book but it’s also a book with a theme: persevering and never giving up on your dreams,” Navalta said. “Before these greats were considered superstars on TV, scoring a lot of goals and winning championships, they went through very real human challenges.”

The book opens with the 1999 U.S. Women’s National Team, whose World Cup victory helped change how people view women's sports in America and around the world. 

The women’s team didn’t receive the same level of support, promotion or pay as the men’s team, but they won in a nail-biting match against China. To this day, it’s the most watched soccer match in American history.

“It spawned a new generation of future players, like Alex Morgan, like Megan Rapinoe, and now Team USA is considered the dominant force every time there’s a Women’s World Cup,” Navalta said.

Other players highlighted in the book include David Clarke, a blind player who is the highest goal scorer in England; Marta, Brazil’s all-time scoring leader, who learned to play with a ball of rags wrapped in plastic and was told multiple times growing up that soccer was not for girls; and Lionel Messi, who was diagnosed as a kid with growth hormone deficiency.

Navalta also features Gianluigi “Gigi” Buffon, a legendary goalkeeper from Italy. “He won the 2006 World Cup Goalkeeper of the Year, but he also dealt with mental health issues,” he said. “The message there is that just because you are successful doesn’t mean you’re happy.” Buffon became a spokesperson for the importance of taking care of yourself when you suffer from depression.

Becoming a published author had been Navalta’s dream since he was very young. “My first plan was to write books from the age of 20 to 30 and retire at 30, but that didn’t happen,” he said. 

Instead, Navalta became a sportswriter covering community games for the Vallejo Times-Herald when he was a senior in high school, and went on to write about high school and college games while he studied at Sacramento State. 

After graduation, Navalta specialized in public relations, working for the Sacramento Kings for a year, and later for different companies. He always kept a foot in sports, though, and for 20 years he worked as a publicist for a Golden State Warriors player. Currently he is senior manager of U.S. communications for Ubisoft, a video game company.

In August 2024 he received a message from an old high school acquaintance who told him she worked for Penguin Random House and they were looking for a writer with a strong sports background to write children’s stories. 

Navalta was excited for the opportunity and got to work. His first book, “Basketball Stars: Stories and Skills from the NBA’s and WNBA’s Best Players,” came out July 2025 and was written for kids eight to 12. The book used the same pattern as his most recent one, telling the backstory and challenges faced by some basketball superstars. 

Becoming the writer he dreamed he would be has been very gratifying, but Navalta has enjoyed even more the effect his books have on his young readers.  

“It was really fun getting to see how much kids enjoyed it,” Navalta said, referring to his first book. And “to be able to play a small part in helping grow the game is a very gratifying feeling for me.”