The World Cup and international relations
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.
Football Is a Country
Rwanda’s £30 million Arsenal sleeve
The Arsenal 'Visit Rwanda' sponsorship deal is government image management 101.
The president’s footballers
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.
A Black Queen in the Seattle Reign
Organized US Soccer is perceived as middle class and white. Seattle, Washington wants to break with that via its professional women's team.
Pogbacité
Is France's World Cup championship team a bellwether for France's political future?
Everything ends with a song
"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."
The Respectable French
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.
Kylian Mbappé, Karim Benzema and France’s Second-Class Citizens
Fascists love Mbappé and hate Benzema. Between these two lies the problem of romanticizing the French team as an African team.
What Would a World Cup Win for France Mean in the French Caribbean?
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.
Nigeria’s World Cup Adventure is Over: Do We Still Love Her?
Focusing on sports allegiance to Nigeria, offered a break from pondering over all of its social ills.
The masters of the improbable
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.
Ibrahim Usman’s Road to Qatar
Watching the World Cup with a young Nigerian professional footballer in Seattle, U.S.
#TousEnsemble
The success of Belgium's national football team as a key site for political struggles over identity, race and immigration.
Cette équipe tue les fascistes
en ce moment, le plus français de tous les français est un gamin noir d’origine algérienne et camerounaise nommé Kylian Mbappé.
The Pan-Africanist roots of football in Ghana
Soccer came to Ghana with “a Jamaican educationist." That's the popular version. It's not entirely correct.
Fear of a Black France
You want to troll French fascists? Tell them the truth: the most French man in the world right now is a black kid called Kylian Mbappé.
The header that rocked the world
At Italia 1990, Cameroon pulled off the greatest upsets in football in the history of the World Cup--against Maradona's Argentina.
BaGhana BaGhana
One of the weirder displays of Pan-Africanism descended on Johannesburg’s Soccer City on the evening of July 2, 2010.
Not Socrates’ Brazil
Brazilians have a complicated relationship to the Seleção, clouded by political crises, the parliamentary coup and the decline of a national style.
The search for football talent in Africa
Two of Africa's standout talents at Russia 2018--Moussa Wague and Francis Uzoho--were shaped by a football academy in Qatar. A new book tells that story.