The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.
The academic treatment for English-speakers who get that soccer is more than gamedays, stars and goals. Who wonder about the histories, subcultures and politics that make the game so different from many American sports cultures; and who care about a critical take on soccer as a global capitalist machine. A European-guided journey, with one expert "visiting professor" each episode.
The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.
Berlin, Berlin! Hertha, Union, Babelsberg, TeBe, Tasmania, Türkyiemspor, Maccabi (+ an update from Freiburg and a bonus song on Viennese workers' football)
Damiano Benzoni, Italian journalist and seasoned groundhopper, has written a wonderful book - an "emotive map of football in Berlin," a rich portrait of a city through the eyes of football. And when that city happens to be the German capital, torn by wars, shaped by the dvide between two Germanies and various migrant influences, the texture of such a book happens to be particularly interesting. The book, for now, is available only in Italien, so consider this an English language exclusive.
We also get an update on SC Freiburg's last season. And just to scare the right people away, an Austrian workers' song that dovetails wonderfully with Gabriel Kuhn's engaging portrait of a social democratic soccer utopia from Spring.
HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Book website (Urbone Publishing)
Damiano Benzoni on X and Instagram
Biberstand Boys - Unioner im Haus (YouTube) - this is an anti-Union song, mind you!
Die Arbeiter von Wien - Austrian workers' song (YouTube), with English lyrics
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Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind
Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/