Storybook: The Original Football Comic Series
Storybook is Fantasy Sports Portal’s original football parody series, combining football satire, recurring characters and real events from the game in one continuing comic adventure.
Originally launched in 2015, the story follows The Kid, an exciting young footballer whose life changes after an unforgettable World Cup. A surprise telephone call from the President of his club in Monte Carlo leads to a dramatic transfer, a new life in Madrid and a series of increasingly unusual football adventures.
Along the way, The Kid encounters demanding managers, ambitious club presidents, old friends, unexpected rivals, a remarkably philosophical taxi driver and one of football’s greatest unsolved mysteries: the contents of The Satchel.
Inspired by real personalities and events from world football, Storybook approaches the beautiful game with British humour, parody and a growing cast of original characters.
From Monte Carlo to Madrid
One telephone call changes everything.
After impressing at the World Cup, The Kid returns to Monte Carlo expecting life to continue as normal. Instead, the President has plans for him. Before long, The Kid is leaving his friends behind and heading to Madrid to begin the next chapter of his football career.
Success, however, is never quite as straightforward as it appears.
The Kid must adapt to a new club, impress The Boss and cope with everything that comes with being one of football’s most talked-about young players. Fortunately, he has help from an unlikely collection of friends and advisers—although not all of their advice is particularly useful.
Each Storybook chapter continues the journey while drawing inspiration from the football stories, personalities and controversies of the era.
Meet the Storybook Characters
The Kid
Young, talented and relentlessly optimistic, The Kid is at the centre of the Storybook universe.
Originally inspired by the emergence of James Rodríguez following the 2014 World Cup, The Kid arrives in Madrid with enormous expectations resting on his shoulders. He sees football as an adventure, believes almost anything is possible and regularly finds himself caught between the sensible decision and the much more interesting one.
Through The Kid’s eyes, readers experience the excitement, confusion and occasional absurdity of life at the highest level of football.
The Tiger
The Tiger and The Kid were best friends in Monte Carlo before their football careers took them in different directions.
Inspired by Colombian striker Radamel Falcao, The Tiger is confident, loyal and always ready to offer advice. Whether that advice should be followed is another question entirely.
Despite going their separate ways, it does not take long for The Tiger and The Kid to discover that they still have plenty in common. Their friendship provides some of Storybook’s most memorable conversations, schemes and misunderstandings.
The Cabbie
When The Kid arrives in Madrid, he is collected by a cabbie who promises to become his regular driver.
Inspired by Travis Bickle, Robert De Niro’s character in Taxi Driver, The Cabbie is dry, observant and unexpectedly wise. He has seen almost everything football can offer and rarely appears surprised by the latest crisis.
From the front seat of his familiar black taxi, The Cabbie provides blunt opinions, street-level philosophy and advice that often makes more sense than anything coming from inside the football club.
Football changes. Managers come and go. The Cabbie remains.
The President
The President has been playing his own version of real-money fantasy football and is looking forward to another attempt at winning the Champions League when he receives an unexpected bombshell.
Ambitious, publicity-conscious and always ready to interfere, The President believes every problem can be solved with another major announcement.
His decisions set the original Storybook adventure in motion, although the consequences are rarely as predictable as he expects.
The Boss
The Boss is responsible for keeping the team organised, focused and capable of winning football matches.
Unfortunately, the players, the President and the general chaos surrounding the club rarely make that job easy.
He is not impressed when The Kid arrives late for his first day of training. The Kid must quickly prove that the excitement surrounding his arrival is justified and that he has what it takes to survive life at his new club.
Permanent pressure, deadpan reactions and an increasingly difficult working environment make The Boss one of Storybook’s most recognisable characters.
The Satchel
The Satchel is not technically a person, but it is one of the most important characters in the Storybook universe.
Inspired by Louis van Gaal’s famous briefcase, its contents remain a closely guarded secret. Does it contain a revolutionary tactical system, a winning football formula or something far less impressive?
Everyone wants to know what is inside.
Nobody receives a proper answer.
The search for the truth becomes one of Storybook’s longest-running jokes and an enduring mystery throughout the original series.
Football Satire Inspired by the Real Game
Storybook is a fictional comic series, but its world was shaped by genuine football stories.
The characters, transfers, managerial disputes and club politics were inspired by the personalities and events dominating European football at the time. Instead of simply reporting those events, Storybook transformed them into an ongoing narrative filled with parody, misunderstandings and recurring jokes.
The result is part football comic, part sporting sitcom and part record of an unforgettable period in the modern game.
Readers can follow the main story from the beginning or explore individual chapters featuring favourite characters and football-inspired storylines.
The Original Storybook Archive
The original Fantasy Sports Portal Storybook contains 38 pages and chapters, following The Kid’s journey from Monte Carlo to Madrid and beyond.
Every original chapter remains part of the official Storybook story. Together, they introduce the central characters, establish the running jokes and create the football universe that will continue in Storybook: The Next Chapter.
New readers should begin with Chapter 1, where the President receives the news that changes The Kid’s life.
Start reading: Chapter 1 – The President
Storybook: The Next Chapter
The original Storybook remains canon.
The next stage of the series takes place approximately ten years later. The Kid is older, familiar faces have moved on and football has entered a new era shaped by data analysts, influencers, agents, modern owners and VAR.
One familiar character is still driving the same black taxi.
The Cabbie becomes the bridge between the original Storybook and a new generation of football characters, continuing the story rather than starting again.
Football has changed.
The Cabbie has not.
