Notes from Babel: ‘To win a World Cup you must be at your most virtuous’
In football, does Man the Player reject Man the Maker by having devised a game played with the feet? So asks sportsBabel’s Sean Smith before the World Cup.
Soccer as a second language
-
Subscribe
-
Recent articles
- Football made in Nigeria | A short story by Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
- ‘Before funny things started’ | A World Cup monologue by Tapuwa Moore
- Taking a turn ‘in the woods,’ confronting the goalkeeper’s choice
- Koman Coulibaly, refereeing and the electronic scrum over ‘truth’
- Excavating American soccer fields, uncovering buried layers of sport
Video
For Red Nose Day 2009, Smithy stumbles into the England Football meeting and lets rip. Featuring David Beckham, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, David James, Peter Crouch, Michael Carrick.
-
- Bosnia | 'Joyful fandom' & the flares of Sarajevo (w/ podcast)
- A portrait with fluidity | Preserving Zidane's day of work on 'the green of the field'
- Dramatic figure | Roy Keane saga continues on the boards
- Africa | Showing Mugabe the red card proves a difficult trick
- Villains, for a moment | New York Times' Fugee tale exposes soccer-challenged Southerners to public ire
Press & publicity
"It's a global game, indeed. Thank you ... for an incredible resource of a website" (Hannah Sung, “Soccer Is a Global Game,” CBC Book Club, 14 Jun 10). More »
Anthology
David Goldblatt calls The Global Game: Writers on Soccer "the first truly global survey of writing" on world football. Buy from Amazon »
Podcasts
Our podcasts include conversations with authors Aleksandar Hemon, Gay Talese, Jennifer Doyle and Paulo Coelho. Go to archive »Site tools
Grassroots
- Football Unites, Racism Divides Sheffield, England, group provides a resource library and encourages participation in football from minorities and women.
- Global Voices Online Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society spotlights “bridge blogs,” sites that help explain unfamiliar cultures. Frequent posts on football.
- Play the Game “Home for the homeless questions in sport.” From Copenhagen, advocates for sports journalists and improvements in sports coverage.
- Soccer in the Streets Atlanta-based group emphasizes positive choices in bringing soccer to urban areas across the USA.
- Street Soccer Organizers of the Homeless World Cup.
- Street Soccer 945 The street soccer program of the Urban Ministry Center, Charlotte, North Carolina.
- streetfootballworld Based in Berlin, the organization acts as a clearinghouse for information on grassroots football worldwide.
Recent comments
- Rick on When Kanoute scored and Iraq exploded—a Spurs’ supporter’s prison diary
- Felicity Jones on In disaster, soccer infrastructure becomes Haitian lifeline
- ALYCE on Books | For centuries, life has had its uppies and downies
- Nonso uzozie on Football made in Nigeria | A short story by Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
- Jim Harte on Morocco | Players on a masculine stage
Most e-mailed articles
- History | Were Paterson FC the first stateside association football club? - 6 emails
- History | Soccer fields, for King and Atlanta, lent space to move ‘beyond Vietnam’ - 5 emails
- History | Remembering New Jersey’s immigrant soccer past - 5 emails
- Books | Born in ‘invisible town,’ Marta gains life in visible ink - 4 emails
- Iran | ‘As if one were under water’ - 4 emails
- South Africa | At the top of our thoughts, near the bottom of the world - 4 emails
- Remembering Eudy, KwaThema’s brightest, killed on its darkest night - 4 emails
- In places without a name, ‘Pelada’ films the football we never knew - 4 emails
- Taking a turn ‘in the woods,’ confronting the goalkeeper’s choice - 4 emails
- Historically black and proud | At Spelman, women’s soccer pushes beyond expectation - 3 emails
Themes
- Africa (44)
- Argentina (2)
- Arts (44)
- Asia (13)
- Australia (2)
- Austria (1)
- Balkans (2)
- Bolivia (5)
- Brazil (16)
- Burma (3)
- Canada (9)
- Caribbean (10)
- China (5)
- Eastern Europe (11)
- England (61)
- France (6)
- Germany (9)
- Grassroots (32)
- History (33)
- Hungary (2)
- India (1)
- Iran (12)
- Iraq (3)
- Israel (13)
- Italy (7)
- Language (53)
- Latin America (16)
- Media (35)
- Mexico (9)
- Middle East (14)
- Netherlands (1)
- Oceania (2)
- Podcast (27)
- Regions (171)
- Russia (4)
- Scotland (10)
- South Africa (10)
- Spain (2)
- Sweden (3)
- Teaching Resources (40)
- Turkey (5)
- Ukraine (9)
- USA (43)
- Women's Football (57)