You like soccer, you are connected with the world, it is just as simple as that.

"I also wanted to provide commentary on World Cup 2022 that's more than just 'Qatar bad'" THANK YOU! This is why you're one of the best intellectuals on the platform and a good role model to follow. Btw: Qatar bad

Barcelona's stadium was a safespace to express catalan identity under the dictatorship. Franco banned their language, all catalan names and symbols related to Barcelona. The only place left to express their catalonian pride was through their team. This political context is the reason why even though Messi is undoubtedly the clubs best player Johan Cruyff will forever be the most legendary. As a young star from Netherlands he chose Barcelona over Real Madrid bc he didnt want to be related to Franco in any way and went on to lead the team to multiple spanish titles over Real Madrid under the dictatorship. He even named his son Jordi (catalan name) which was prohibited by Franco. Then as a manager led the team to their first ever Champions League

Congrats to all the USMNT fans on the win over Iran! Some context for non-Iranians: After 70 days of protests in Iran with the slogan “Women, Life, Liberty” and more than 400 people killed, including at least 60 minors, the regime has heavily invested in the World Cup in order to distract people and silence their movement. They’ve sent thousands of “spectators” to Qatar and made pacts with Qatari government to make sure the World Cup doesn’t become a platform for the ongoing Iranian revolution (according to the new recordings obtained by Iranian hackers from the confidential meetings of military generals and the propaganda arms of the regime). CNN reports that Iranian players have been threatened that if they show any serious signs of support for the protests, their families won’t be safe. Some of the players were taken to a meeting with the “president” before the World Cup, which caused outrage among the Iranian fans. Many Iranians (including me) were hoping the American team to win, so the regime doesn’t get to use the result to further suppress the movement. This is the soccer team of the Islamic Republic, not our Iranian national team.

"It's for the rest of the world" is such an American thing to say

I really like the effort you make as an outsider to understand other cultures. Especially in the field of music, but this video is a further demonstration. And it's really appreciable... it's a mind opening attitude and it's contagious for those watching, I think. When I lived in the US and talked to Americans about soccer, I always had the feeling there was a lot of naivety in the analyses they made (or viceversa were my analysis of a NBA or NFL game), and to some extent I saw them again in your video. For a small percentage maybe this is the case, you know it is simply the fact that you are not used to following soccer on a regular basis. I can imagine that understanding the rules, the organisation of all the competitions is complicated from the outside, but if you’ve grown up with it it's of course all in the nature of things, and you don't even notice. But I was wrong to think that.. more importantly than naivité, I believe that there’s a profoundly different way of approaching sport in general in the US and Europe (I don't know about elsewhere). In my view, the attitude of the American fan is on average far healthier than the European fan. In Europe, fans grow up with this barbaric notion (perhaps not explicitly stated in these terms) that the opponent is an enemy you sort of don't have necessarily to respect. Not always things get so exaggerated that lead to violence and the hooliganism that you mentioned, but still.. the overall approach of the supporters is really toxic.. For the rest, I only support a club team (AC Milan). I've never supported Italy precisely because of the annoyance of the nationalist sentiment that is resurrected every time in these competitions (luckily we didn't even qualify this year). But I empathize with your point about why you support France or the underdog team, or even Marseille and then PSG in the Champions League... it's really very personal for me, but I see how it may seem strange to many around here (it’s almost a monotheistic approach. So if you root for more than one team, people are confused on what your religion really is). As for me, besides of AC Milan, I generally root for the team that plays the type of soccer I like best (the offensive and technical kind). Anyways, from what some American friends tell me, it seems that soccer is beocming more and more popular in the US, and I actually notice that the MLS is getting populated with good players (who more and more often are choosing the MLS over European clubs). P.s. Sorry you didn't get to see Stromae in concert! That’s really a bummer! P.p.s. I love Zidane, even if he played for Juventus. It's always difficult to establish the GOAT, but he is one of the greatest for sure. My fav players are: Maldini, Messi, Iniesta, Totti, Pirlo, and Zidane as well. Last p.s. Soccer or football is fine, but please.. pineapple in pizza really isn't!

Idle speculation probably based on stereotypes: (Some) Americans might not like watching football bc football is the only sport where top play isn't about exerting physical dominance over your opponent. Looking at it, it's the only sport where the top players aren't physically imposing. Basketball, American Football, Baseball(?), Hockey, all their top players are tall, big and physically imposing. Football is the one sport where the best players are generally small and they dominate by being clever/tricky/poetic.

Yes mate! All of my hobbies coming together into one video hahaha

I have played soccer my whole life and love the sport so much. My brother and I are fanatics and parents didn’t understand us for years and had no idea what we were talking about, but one way they tried to understand our passion for it was through Fantasy Premier League (The English version of Fantasy Football). It really got them it in, rooting for different players and hoping them score to get them points, and it got them to understand where players play and positions and strategies. Fantasy soccer has become so popular that you can build a team with your friends for the World Cup, Champions League, basically anything. If you are wanting a fun on interactive way to get into the game, fantasy soccer is another way. Great video.

I see the amount of african players in the french and other european teams as the byproduct of a colonialist mechanism that keeps them from playing for their own countries, if you are a very good senegalese player, for example, it is way more desirable economically to play in french teams than at home and that makes it so that the african teams keep only the lower tier players and that seems to me like one of the many ways europe exploits africa economically, capturing value through their most skilled and thus profitable players. Although i get your point about french nationalists and it being a beautiful showcase of the goodness of imigration i think its important to think about it critically and to emphasize the roots of that imigration and thats what jumps out to me the most .. idk if i managed to express myself clearly my english is not very good

Would very much watch more soccer videos (world cup or club)

It's not just football that causes cognitive dissonance in French racists. Here's a quote from Marie Curie's wikipedia page: *Her daughter later remarked on the French press's hypocrisy in portraying Curie as an unworthy foreigner when she was nominated for a French honour, but portraying her as a French heroine when she received foreign honours such as her Nobel Prizes* But I think that racists are actually adept at burying cognitive dissonance, so this doesn't actually change that many hearts/minds.

That Zidane take is BOLD, especially when you are a brazilian listening to.

Disliking Alexi Lalas is something most soccer fans can agree on, he's been skating off being a former player with an iconic look for too long.

If there's any Americans reading this, please only really support an american team and do not have a favourite team from the top 5 leagues. This is partly destroying football for local fans. Best example of that would be Barcelona. Fan culture is eradicated, ticket prices are so high it's a joke, there is no atmosphere in the stadium at all and most of the stadium is full of tourists who watch like one Barcelona game a year at most, which is why for them it's ok to spent the 30-50€ more for a ticket and they never had an understanding of the local fan culture in the first place so they didn't notice they "destroyed" anything, but the average local who would want to go to every home match cannot do that anymore because now the extra money he has to pay every match matters and he might not even want to go to the stadium as much because the atmosphere is dead anyway, taking away from the stadium experience. Furthermore kickoff times might be changed even further so that for example the match is more accessible to us fans or even some matches like cup finals would be played in other countries like the USA. Why that'd be shit for every local supporter is something I hopefully don't have to explain. I love football more than most things so of course I want as many people as possible to share that love but I'm very concerned about the state football is in right now and the increasing amount of fans from the US isn't making anything better. Also if I'd be a football fan in the US I would prefer supporting a local team over a foreign one by a mile. Support your local team!!!!

hey professor, somewhat off topic question but do you have any interest in esports? I know your a very open minded person and Im just curious what your general thoughts on esports are considering youve never played or probably seen most the popular ones. Is it something you can see yourself digging into like soccer or is it something youd rather not touch. Also curious to hear if you think esports players should be compared to other traditional athletes? Love all ur stuff

You have to check out Mohamed henni for soccer KZfaqrs

Some reading I would highly recommend: "The Ball is Round" by David Goldblatt "Soccer in Sun and Shadow" by Eduardo Galeano "Fear and Loathing in La Liga" by Sid Lowe "Among the Ultras" by James Montague "Brilliant Orange" by David Winner

Historically, Soccer has been heavily politicized. It’s a beautiful beautiful game though ❤ but I expected everyone to do more to bring attention to the Iran revolution, but who knows what kind of pressure they’re under 🤷🏻‍♀️ the revolution goes on #WomanLifeFreedom #MahsaAmini

From US, going for England mainly cause I’m obsessed with premier league

Well it just so happens half my family is from Denmark.

As a Canadian, making the World Cup for the first time in 36 years (and scoring our first goal) has been a surreal moment because Canadians do watch the World Cup, but usually sport the flags, jerseys and support their country of heritage, since multiculturalism means your encouraged to support your ancestry (e.g. Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Ghana, Iran, Chile, etc.). The movie theatre ended up showing the second game and there were people speaking different languages but all gasping and cheering at the exact same moment for Canada which made me particularly proud to be Canadian as often during this tournament if you support another country you're only with other Canadians who have that same background but now, you actually get to support and share in the successes and failures with your neighbours of different background. Although Canada supports the hockey team (a sport we're supposed to win), and the women's soccer team winning the gold medal in a penalty shootout in Japan last year was sick, the men's World Cup is on another level in the world of sport. This was like going to the world's most exclusive, hottest nightclub getting turned away for years and then finally you say your name, the bouncer gives a doubting expression, scrolls down, surprisingly see it's on the list, and lifts the barrier to let you through. Also, I hate the elitist argument by some that "soccer" is the wrong (i.e. American) term when it was invented by the British and used by the upper classes until the post-50s when they wanted to differentiate themselves from the "Yanks." I also hate how MLS felt the desire to re-brand a lot of their teams with European names (like "Real Salt Lake" and "Inter Miami") instead of using American terms because it's so inferiority complex. "When you understand a sport, it is no longer boring." #truer words. I've tried watching rugby union for literally the past decade and was bored by it but only recently have begun to enjoy it after (ironically) getting into Australian football during the pandemic. It's like getting accustomed to the taste of beer if you've never drunk alcohol. And sport is one of the last bastions in society that brings people together regardless of the usual identity markers. Alphonso Davies (our best men's player of all time) was a Liberian refugee born in Ghana who moved to Edmonton, Alberta and one of our key strikers (second best player on the team) is a Haitian-American immigrant from Brooklyn. I also understand your wife's hesitation about nationalism in the former Yugoslavia. Our keeper, Milan Bojan, was born in a Serb minority area of Croatia and had to flee to Canada as a kid and some idiot Croatian fans had a John Deere sign with the name of his hometown village with the year 95 and "nothing runs like Bojan" which was disgusting but he's virtually the vocal and spiritual leader of the Canadian team. France also produces the most World Cup players around the world since there are more players than can compete for France a lot of them end up playing for North African and West African nations and improving those teams. South Africa's 2019 Rugby World Cup win in the wake of being the first team to lose a group match to win the trophy, pre-tournament grumblings about the quota system which allows more black players to compete for the Springboks, and their first black captain showed the power of sport. Parliamentarians in the South African government of all backgrounds and political strips joined in the singing of the traditional song "Shosholoza" (this is the song that's being sung by the crowd when Matt Damon is giving his timeout speech in the film "Invictus") and it was also being sung by a diverse group of fans celebrating together during live coverage of the team's return to South Africa. P.S. Hobnobbing with Romneys and Glazers. Quite a life you've had lol. And while there are rumours the Glazers are selling Man U, moves like the failed attempt to create the Super League have lead to critiques that the US owners are trying to Americanize (i.e. colonize?) the sport (like getting rid of promotion and relegation and the club vs. franchise model). Also, I'd recommend watching ESPN FC. What I love about their analysts is they all speak accented English (either from Britain or the Caribbean) or English as a second language (from France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Venezuela) and some who are American are Hispanic and bilingual and can speak Spanish. In Canada, all our analysts are Canadian or British which I feel limits that global scope that the Europeans and Central Americans bring. Great video!

Your point about France’s national team being built on immigration reminded me of England during the 2021 euros. The English team is pretty diverse and full of young black talent. During the Euros they dominated and got all the way to the final against Italy. Every fan, even the most racist English fan, was shouting “IT’S COMING HOME”. The match is ended in a penalty shootout where all the black players happened to miss all their penalties (Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Raheem Sterling I believe) and suddenly all the racists were ready to say “see what happens when you prioritise wokeness over a good team” or words to that effect. It was infuriating

That soccer x football discussion got kinda saussurean

PSG are not the only French club in the UCL.

Brazil is the best team in the world and the most mixed country in the world so it checks out

You need to understand, I played soccer up until second grade 🤓

despite recognizing that we simply live in very different social contexts, I still can't help but laugh and even be a little surprised how you have to make a video arguing why people should like soccer, because as a Latin American, not only have I grown up in an environment where people eat and breathe soccer, but in recent years I have heard more and more the opposite: That people should stop liking soccer, should worry about "more relevant things", that soccer is the reflection of our underdeveloped society and more nonsense. the contrast is just too funny. and, OF COURSE you don't need to have a good national soccer team, and Peru is proof of that: we have just a "decent" soccer team, but Peruvians are not only soccer fans but even a minimal victory of that team (from which you can't expect muc), is enough to get us out of the bad mood of the economic inflation and political instability LOL

study zdenek zeman

3:40 OK but you can’t say that a lot of American attitudes towards football is chauvinistic, imperialist, Occidental, western, etc. etc. and then call it soccer! Calling the sport soccer is it self reflective of all of those chauvinistic, imperialist, occidental and western practices.

Nice try.;) Coming from the only living guy in Germany who doesn't care for soccer at all. I only care for the ESC.:) But please share more information about why immigration is a good thing for societies.

Completely uninformed on sports in general. My default stance was 'all sports are bad.' Don't like the nationalism, don't like the violence, I'm also a weak skinny nerd who never gravitated towards that field. Always the worst kid on the soccer team, always got participation trophies. But that's not good enough. I don't like that you're giving me this cop-out. Your thesis is compelling - if you take the time to learn about something - perhaps obsessively, it won't be boring anymore. I'm not sure if it's universal but I'm willing to accept it for sports. Of course the Catch-22 is that if you already think it's boring you won't want to learn about it. I have trouble choosing teams but I'll root for France because you like France. Works for me. Thank you so much for all the links - I will check them out!

Es heißt Fußball! !

OM, PSG, Juventus and Barcelona? Fr? This guy a normie😩😤

Zidane is great and important but it’s almost ignorant to say the greatest

My brother in christ zidane isnt even the best french player

Counter point: it is boring