Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe are partners in love and partners in business. Now they’ll be taking their business and telling the story of two soccer women in love in “Cleat Cute.”
That’s the news from their production company, A Touch More. They’ve announced a production partnership with Future Shack Entertainment to develop “Cleat Cute,” a best-selling novel from author Meryl Wilsner.
The story centers on two soccer players who end up on the U.S. Women’s National Team. One is a young decade-long veteran, on the team since 16. The other is a 22-year-old rookie. Gradually their admiration for one another grows, until they end up in each other’s arms.
Of course, drama ensues.
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From the book’s Amazon entry:
“As the World Cup approaches and Grace works her way back from injury, a miscommunication leaves the women with hilariously different perspectives on their relationship. But they’re on the same page on the field, realizing they can play together instead of vying for the same position. With every tackle the tension between them grows, and both players soon have to decide what’s more important―being together or making the roster.”
We’re not sure how much Bird and Rapinoe know about dating a teammate. While they’ve been very open about their own relationship, we don’t know a heck of a lot about other women they may have dated.
Still, they’ve likely been on a team at some point when a teammate dated either someone on the team, or someone in the sport.
Either way, they are hoping to get this series from development to production.
“Having spent most of our lives on teams, we want to celebrate the ways in which relationships, both romantic and platonic, are organically created through sports,” Bird and Rapinoe said in a statement, according to Variety. “‘Cleat Cute’” will not shy away from the messiness, occasional frustration, and undeniable beauty that come with loving the game and the players within it.”
Bird added on Instagram that the project is a first for their production company.
“‘Cleat Cute,’ which surged in popularity due to “BookTok,” marks the first scripted series project for A Touch More!”
BookTok is, as you’d guess it, highlighting books popular, or set to be popular, on TikTok.
As two former world-class athletes in love, Bird and Rapinoe know the challenges sports’ world stage can bring. Each of them chased league, world and Olympic titles while they were dating. Sometimes they were successful, sometimes they were not.
Though a question for Bird and Rapinoe is about the next step for their own love story. They’ve been engaged to marry for almost four years. Yet we haven’t heard plans about when the two of them will walk down the aisle together.
When they do marry, it will be a wedding of weddings, a who’s who in the women’s sports world.
When a WNBA legend and a USWNT legend marry… it could be one of the great sports weddings of all time.
Until then, their production company will be developing “Cleat Cute” as a series. Where it will possibly end up for distribution, we can only guess.
