Literature | Israeli writers’ trophy leads to ‘emptiness of the day after’

From Tel Aviv we interview Assaf Gavron, novelist, translator, editor and captain of a recently created team of Israeli writers. The team, with victories over England and Germany, lifted its first trophy, taking Gavron to the familiar day-after feeling of emptiness that resembles completion of a novel. (Dec 19)

History | In Atlanta, spreading soccer contagion at parade rest (w/ podcast)

Oct 4 | Ron Newman built the U.S. game in literal terms, calling on carpentry skills to construct goalposts out of discarded building materials. In Atlanta in 1967, he jumped off a Memorial Day float and kicked a ball to youngsters.

Cinema | A soccer player’s escape from Argentina … into philosophy (w/ podcast)

The film Crónica de una fuga (Chronicle of an Escape) has released to DVD in North America. We interview Claudio Tamburrini—philosophy professor and former goalkeeper—about his Mar 1978 decision to “opt for life.”

Grassroots | A big day for Haiti, a big day for little Haitians (w/ multimedia)

Miami | Haiti past, present and future came together early in May on an urban oasis in Little Haiti. After 10 years of negotiation and bureaucratic delay, an all too rare inner-city, publicly funded, full-size soccer pitch opened on one-time industrial ground north of downtown. With multimedia and podcast.

Africa | In Liberia’s hidden places, amputee players wait for empowerment (w/ podcast)

Monrovia, Liberia, Apr 6 | Football has its hidden stories, but even when these stories are reported some aspects still remain hidden.

Such is the case with amputee footballers of Liberia, who on Apr 6 defeated neighbor Sierra Leone to earn the championship of the second All Africa Amputee Cup of Nations. In the final at Antoinette Tubman Stadium—the facility named for the spouse of former president William Tubman—Junior Kulee scored Liberia’s lone goal. With 14-minute podcast.

Books | For centuries, life has had its uppies and downies (w/ podcast)

Jedburgh, Scotland, Mar 12 | Hugh Hornby, author of a comprehensive account of Britain’s 15 surviving festival football games—Uppies and Downies: The Extraordinary Football Games of Britain (English Heritage, 2008)—was busy signing books during the Jedburgh Ba’ Game on Feb 14, but says that the Uppies “may have prevailed by an odd hail.”

That he terms the annual rituals “mass-participation games” indicates that the emphasis is on taking part, not the result. With 27-minute podcast.

Books | A majestic history built around games (w/ podcast)

Jan 5 | The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Soccer, by David Goldblatt, appears at booksellers in North America this week, and we wonder how many will read the title’s four words as a direct challenge to the myth of American centrality in all things. With 50-minute podcast.

Bosnia | ‘Joyful fandom’ & the flares of Sarajevo (w/ podcast)

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dec 10 | Özgür Dirim Özkan, in fieldwork among supporters’ groups in Sarajevo since Feb 07 and on the Bosnian Football Culture website, has examined football as but a small part of a society that, in the Western frame, implies little but ethnic-riven conflict and a constellation of indecipherable place names. With 28-minute podcast.

Brazil | ‘Invisible chain of solidarity’ (w/ podcast)

Football-generated passions, says Coelho, will propel Brazil toward 2014

Paris, Nov 8 | Within 24 hours of writing about Brazil’s successful presentation to host the 2014 World Cup and the role of writer Paulo Coelho in the bid effort, we received a message from one of Coelho’s assistants, taking note of our comments. We speak with Coelho about his role in the bid and the place of football in Brazilian life.

Media | The stoning of Steven (w/ podcast)

Guardian blogger pricks both sides of US/UK sporting divide

Philadelphia, Oct 31 | Unable by temperament and conviction to create a “conventional” sports report, Steven Wells has built a Web 2.0 following by trusting his punk-poet instincts and inducing an irony-challenged foamy slaver among his American and UK readership. With 40-minute podcast.

‘The feel of the game’ | On the streets, Charlotte participants experience football as sole force

Charlotte, North Carolina | Given the rigors of a night-shift job, Ron “Pop” Miller sometimes would sleep until the last possible moment before practices preceding the Homeless World Cup. Physical conditioning, fatigue and poor nutrition all posed obstacles for Miller’s participation in the fifth homeless tournament between Jul 29 and Aug 4 in Copenhagen. Further, Miller found himself learning a new game that some teammates from Central America had been playing much of their lives.

Playing against boys | Professional league in waiting, competitive instincts still burn for U.S. women

Atlanta, Aug 24 | Nel Hayes, who competed during the Women’s United Soccer Association’s three seasons as Nel Fettig, can be said to have grown up in the “early phase” of the American women’s soccer boom.

Now with a four-month-old daughter, Lily, of her own, Hayes speaks in our Aug 21 podcast of the prescient tactical awareness of girls in the Atlanta Youth Soccer Association, of which she is executive director.