Mateo Silva has been hiding for eleven years.
The Brazilian midfielder arrives in Atlanta with an $8 million transfer fee, a wall he’s built around himself since he was fourteen, and one rule: don’t let anyone see what’s behind it. Not his teammates. Not the groundskeeper who talks to her grass. And definitely not the captain with the green eyes and the system he treats like scripture.
James Wright has a system for everything.
The bisexual center-back came out two years ago in a Players’ Tribune essay and survived. He organized his defense, his apartment, and his life with the same precision. Then the new signing walked onto his pitch, ignored his tactical framework, and played a backheel pass that James watched fourteen times on film before admitting it was brilliant.
They see the same pitch from opposite ends. He plays like water. James plays like architecture. On the field, the connection is the best thing either of them has ever produced. Off the field, James is learning Portuguese on Duolingo at midnight, and Mateo is reading James’s coming-out essay with the door locked and the browser history deleted.
But Mateo’s wall isn’t optional. In Brazilian football, the hiding isn’t cowardice—it’s survival. And when a photograph destroys another player’s career overnight, the cost of visibility becomes devastatingly real.
The wall is a tax on every dimension of his life. The question is whether what’s on the other side is worth the cost of tearing it down.
Yellow Card is a full-length MM sports romance featuring a closeted Brazilian footballer, a bisexual captain who learns Portuguese for him, a groundskeeper who knows everything, and the belief that the grass grows back. This is Book 1 in the Open Goal series. Each book follows a different couple on the same team. No cliffhanger. HEA guaranteed.
