• James M. Dorsey

Algeria reached the African Cup final for the first time in 29 years after defeating Nigeria. It can't be divorced from politics back home.

• Abderrahim Bourkia

The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt and football’s peculiar hold on national identity.

• James M. Dorsey

Egypt got knocked out in the Round of 16, but the hosts have been hamstrung by multiple events, including the military's control, besides its poor performance in the tournament. 

• Loes Oudenhuijsen

Queer identities, widely accepted on the pitch in women's football, may be the way to challenge gender norms in some societies.

• Kuukuwa Manful

The last time Ghana's men's national football team won a tournament was thirty-seven years ago. The team is beginning to feel like yet another failing state institution.

• Clovis Bergère

Who gets to host future editions of the men's soccer World Cup is not just big business, but also a bargaining chip in international relations.

• Susan Thomson

The Arsenal 'Visit Rwanda' sponsorship deal is government image management 101.

• Kangsen Feka Wakai

Star players in Cameroon's national soccer team have always doubled as PR pawns for the protracted rule of Paul Biya, the country's aging and hard-line head of state.

• Ron Krabill
• Danny Hoffman

Organized US Soccer is perceived as middle class and white. Seattle, Washington wants to break with that via its professional women's team.

• Laurent Dubois

Is France's World Cup championship team a bellwether for France's political future?

• Grégory Pierrot

"When the game is over in Russia, I’ll go play another at the field down the street. I’ll find a song to sing on the way."

• Emily Suzanne Lever

The 2010 World Cup was tumultuous for France; both an athletic failure and a site of social conflict. The French Football Federation doesn't want to repeat it.

• Haythem Guesmi

Fascists love Mbappé and hate Benzema. Between these two lies the problem of romanticizing the French team as an African team.

• Annette Joseph-Gabriel

A possible French victory hovers like a thin layer of hope that barely veils the simmering anger at France’s neglect of the islands and pessimism about the future.

• Damola Durosomo

Focusing on sports allegiance to Nigeria, offered a break from pondering over all of its social ills.

• Gianpaolo Baiocchi

In 1982, Reinaldo, Rei (“King”) a striker prone to making black power salutes, was left out out of the country's World Cup squad. Two other rebels, Socrates and Zico, made it though.

• Ron Krabill
• Danny Hoffman

Watching the World Cup with a young Nigerian professional footballer in Seattle, U.S.

• Heleen Debeuckelaere

The success of Belgium's national football team as a key site for political struggles over identity, race and immigration.

• Grégory Pierrot

en ce moment, le plus français de tous les français est un gamin noir d’origine algérienne et camerounaise nommé Kylian Mbappé.

• Philip Janzen

Soccer came to Ghana with “a Jamaican educationist." That's the popular version. It's not entirely correct.