Leander Schaerlaeckens is a long-time soccer writer and has worked for ESPN, FOX Sports, and Yahoo Sports, among others, covering the sport at three World Cups. Four of his stories were noted in the Best American Sportswriting/Year’s Best Sportswriting anthologies.

He currently writes a weekly soccer column for The Guardian and contributes to ESPN and The Ringer. His first book, The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, will be published by Viking (Penguin Random House) on May 12, 2026.

Leander is also a senior lecturer in sports communication and journalism at Marist University, where he founded and advises Center Field, a student-run sports media outlet that covers Marist athletics.

Born in the Netherlands and raised in Belgium, Leander went to college in London and Washington, D.C. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with his wife, son, and their mutt/squirrel-murderer, Eleanor Roosevelt.

Leander is represented by David Patterson and Chandler Wickers at the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency.