I can’t find any official press release info on this project, but Cynopsis is reporting that Viz is producing a non-fiction soccer manga as a giveaway promotion. Deciding to make a manga based on the US Soccer Team’s experiences seems like an odd choice to me, considering soccer isn’t exactly a huge deal here in the states, outside of girl’s high school and college soccer. Still, these manga companies seem to know what they’re doing more often than most comic book publishers, so I guess it’ll achieve the goals Viz has for it.

VIZ Media will publish Next Stop: Germany/The Manga, an original sports manga based on the US Men’s National Soccer Team’s biggest win: the September 2005 match against Mexico, which earned the US the right to compete in the 2006 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup in Germany. Next Stop: Germany/The Manga will be given away to fans at the final three Men’s National Team games taking place this month, before the teams heads to the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

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