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The phrase "go west!" was not coined by the Village People or the Pet Shop Boys, but by Horace Greeley, a famous newspaper editor a long time ago. And seen from Europe, all of the United States is West. So that’s what Luca Puster tells his young European clients who just finish High School and are considering college: Go west young man, and grow up playing football. Or soccer. How do they find American colleges? What makes them come here, what is attractive about this step in their football and study careers? How do they find the game here, the current crisis around immigration and politics, what do they take back?  Luca is the co-founder of Students Go West, an agency that helps bring European footballers into American collegiate soccer programs. He also played for the GAK in Graz, Austria, and for Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:  Students Go West, website Percentages of international players in the top NCAA teams, 2023 NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

This story is a journey to one of the original sins of commercialization in modern global football - the 2005 takeover of Austria Salzburg, a former Austrian champion, UEFA cup finalist and Champions League participant by a well known energy drink company that is now active in soccer around the globe, and its subsequent attempt to erase 72 years of footballing history. But more importantly, it’s a journey to soccer’s original grace as well: community, persistence, humility, euphoria, belonging - the resurrection of Austria Salzburg in its original colors, purple and white, by fans and the return of the Austria to professional football in Austria.  Stefan Wally is the man to tell this story - a lifelong fan of the Austria, and the managing director of the Robert-Jungk-Foundation for Future Studies in Salzburg. He is a political scientist, has taught at different universities for twenty years, and regularly teaches Austrian history to an international audience.  HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE: Stefan Wally (LinkedIn) SV Austria Salzburg, website SV Austria Salzburg, Instagram Union Ultras Salzburg, website The Guardian article in English about the Austria after Red Bull SV Austria Salzburg, English Wikipedia entry NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

Welcome to the 3rd Advent/Christmas/Holiday episode this year. It’s a read of a children book again, and that book involves a time-traveling boy and his dog. They time travel, through goalposts, to the first organized football match under Football Association rules, in 1863, between Barnes and Richmond. The game was played at Barnes commons, in West London, across the river from Fulham’s FCs stadium, the Craven Cottage. And the boy and his dog (Kane is his name, no relation to Harry) mess up football history while there. Or, almost. The book is by Adrian Lobley, and I don't want to give away the whole thing here - I'll read up to chapter 10.  Plus: some of the best Christmas-themed stadium chants.  Until January 19th! HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE: Adrian Lobley, Kane and the Christmas Football Adventure "The best Christmas Football chants", YouTube "Comfort Comfort O My People" in the opening piano version, from Road to Virtuosity Sheet Music, YouTube "Comfort Comfort O My People," closing version with organ and drums, performed by the First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

Thomas Melchior placed his first soccer bet in 2005. He was addicted to gambling for 13 years, and imprisoned for the crimes he committed in his addiction. Now, he stands in front of stadiums on gamedays around Europe to raise awareness for the problem that is gambling in football – and he’s using some controversial tactics.  HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE: Thomas Melchior on Instagram Fox Sports, "From prison to social media star: How one man is taking on sports betting at German soccer games" (September 2025) Deutsche Welle, "Gambling in German Football: Time to Quit?" The Guardian, "I lost 10 years of my life’: how UK betting giant’s unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked" NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

In the US, the big soccer boom is always supposedly around the corner. The most recent example: right now, in the lead-up to next year's World Cup. But that waiting until the beautiful game is the "number 1 sport in the U.S."  clouds our view of the game’s history in this country. Today, it's that history, in its own right, that we focus on. Brian Bunk focusses on it, especially, in his new book Beyond the Field: How Soccer Built Community in the United States. Brian is a Historian at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, and has already written THE history of the early game in the US, From Football to Soccer. This is a sequel, a collection of local stories. And there are lot of stories around immigrant identity in there. So I’m reminded of what Oscar Handlin, the dean of American Immigration History, said a few decades ago: “Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.” Well for today, we could say: Brian Bunk wrote a book about the history of soccer and community in the US. And we find out: soccer and community ARE American history.  HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE: Brian's online exhibit "Beyond the Field," with historic photos that appear in the book Brian Bunk on Bluesky Brian's articles for the Society of American Soccer History NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

This is PART 2 of a two-part episode. The 1st part aired two weeks ago, and is the most recent on on the Assistant Professor of Football. Please add a like, a comment, a star rating or spread the word by mouth! I was a little starstruck when David Goldblatt showed up on my screen today. His books have done very well for very good reason. You may have read The Game of Our Lives: The Meaning and Making of English Football or The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Football. David is a sociologist, has a part time academic home in the US as well, at Pitzer college in LA, and this one, Injury Time: Football in a State of Emergency, is a book for the moment. The thesis is simple: a lot of the spaces for communicalism have been devolved in neoliberal Great Britain. But football is the dominant cultural form in modern Britain, not only a reflection or mirror, but the “central metaphorical space” in which the country still speaks with itself. It is in the game, he believes, that English people clearly see themselves. The good and the bad. And the potential for the good, and the bad.  Part 2 will come out in 2 weeks LINK: Injury Time, book page NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

I was a little starstruck when David Goldblatt showed up on my screen today. His books have done very well for very good reason. You may have read The Game of Our Lives: The Meaning and Making of English Football or The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Football. David is a sociologist, has a part time academic home in the US as well, at Pitzer college in LA, and this one, Injury Time: Football in a State of Emergency, is a book for the moment. The thesis is simple: a lot of the spaces for communicalism have been devolved in neoliberal Great Britain. But football is the dominant cultural form in modern Britain, not only a reflection or mirror, but the “central metaphorical space” in which the country still speaks with itself. It is in the game, he believes, that English people clearly see themselves. The good and the bad. And the potential for the good, and the bad.  Part 2 will come out in 2 weeks LINK: Injury Time, book page NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

It's a fall of unrest in East London again. Hammers United, the largest organized fan group at West Ham United, has so far refrained from calling on members of the board or the CEO to resign. Until now. They have launched the campaign "No More BS," targetted specifically at CEO Karen Brady, the B, and chairman David Sullivan, the S. Beyond leafleting, black balloons or protest marches before games, Hammers United are for the first time calling for a match boycott, at West Ham’s next home game, against Brentford on Monday 20th. British media has piled on, with an unprecedented level of scrutiny highlighting the chaotic conditions at West Ham United since Sullivan took over, and the since the move to the London Stadium in 2016. Reason enough to check in again with Andy Payne. He is a chair of the Fan Advisory board, an institution that every Premier League club now must have, and the joint secretary of Hammers United. What’s happening, how, and why?  HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE: Andy Payne on X/twitter Hammers United on Facebook Hammers United on the protests Jacob Steinberg on the protests in The Guardian NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

Before the Conference League anthem came on in Celje Slovenia, one warm August night this year, today’s guest had a lot of work behind him already while I was was on my way via train, uber and rental car from Bosnia. He is Rok Gregoric, press and pr wizard of NK Celje, a Slovenian club that was long a middling in the league of an already small country but has made it to the group phase of the conference league last year and again this year. A remarkable feat for a really pretty quiet city between the two main Slovenian cities Ljubljana and Maribor. Find out why. But also: what goes on in a smaller club when a UEFA competition comes to town? How do they coordinate with the visitors? What security arrangements have to be made? Where does all the UEFA signage come from? Which media gets which access? Rok takes us behind the scenes of his work, and shares about the club and the city - and a remarkable coach.  HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE: NK Celje, website Celje, with city history, Wikipedia NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

This is Part 2 of an unusual episode, on the move through countries, memories, wounds, war, peace and the beautiful game. Sturm Graz is and was a workers club when I came to the club in the 90s, one year before Ivica Osim arrived. We knew he was a mathematician, soccer player and coach, and he knew workers clubs, from Željezničar, in Grbavica, back home in Sarajevo, the city then under a yearlong siege in the Bosnian independence wars. But he added something else. To him, the game was discourse, it was beauty. He explained soccer to us in a way we’d never seen it. Professorial and sometimes grumpy, but always extremely humble. He made us see things in football that we hadn't seen before. And even on the day of his funeral, he made me see things about life that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Osim, an Agnostic and philosopher of football and of the world, is a kind of saint most Bosnians can agree on. He is recommended reading in Japanese schools. And he is the reason why I went to Sarajevo this hot August.  HELPFUL LINKS AND SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE: Ivica Osim (Wikipedia) Tifa (Mladen Vojičić) - Grbavica, live in 1994 (YouTube); intro Tifa - Grbavica at Grbavica stadium, with Zeljo's fans; (Youtube) outro Ivica Osim memorial ceremony in Graz (Youtube), during intro Sev Dah - Grbavica (Youtube) (background track) CNN's Christiane Amanpour reporting after the Srebrenica genocide (Youtube - warning, brutality and dead bodies) Uni of Michigan Libraries, resource guide for Bosnian history and culture Sarajevo (wikipedia) Visit Sarajevo NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

Sturm Graz is and was a workers club when I came to the club in the 90s, one year before Ivica Osim arrived. We knew he was a mathematician, soccer player and coach, and he knew workers clubs, from Željezničar, in Grbavica, back home in Sarajevo, the city then under a yearlong siege in the Bosnian independence wars. But he added something else. To him, the game was discourse, it was beauty. He explained soccer to us in a way we’d never seen it. Professorial and sometimes grumpy, but always extremely humble. He made us see things in football that we hadn't seen before. And even on the day of his funeral, he made me see things about life that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Osim, an Agnostic and philosopher of football and of the world, is a kind of saint most Bosnians can agree on. He is recommended reading in Japanese schools. And he is the reason why I went to Sarajevo this hot August.  This is Part 1 of an unusual episode, on the move through countries, memories, wounds, war, peace and the beautiful game. HELPFUL LINKS AND SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE: Uni of Michigan Libraries, resource guide for Bosnian history and culture Ivica Osim (Wikipedia) Tifa (Mladen Vojičić) - Grbavica, live in 1994 (YouTube); intro Tifa - Grbavica at Grbavica stadium, with Zeljo's fans; (Youtube) outro Ivica Osim memorial ceremony in Graz (Youtube), during intro Sev Dah - Grbavica (Youtube) (background track) CNN's Christiane Amanpour reporting after the Srebrenica genocide (Youtube - warning, brutality and dead bodies) Sarajevo (wikipedia) Visit Sarajevo NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

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 NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

Daniel and Romina are dear, longtime listeners of the podcast. Back in April, I sat down with them at their kitchen table in Stockholm to work out the story behind the many images that circulated online last season: a stunningly large mob of active supporters in fine voice home and away, tifo and all. This wasn't just one big game in a big stadium for the sake of a record. This was organic, homegrown, ultra-themed. At most European away games, the Bajen supporters outnumbered home fans. What gives, and why there, in Stockholm? So what you are about to hear is a kitchen table conversation (recorded on my phone) with dear listeners, who happen to know a lot about this peculiar fanscene at Hammarby men and Hammarby women. There is enough shit happening in this world, and I hope that kitchen table with Daniel and Romina and their stories begins summer on a humble but hopeful note. Thank you for being here, for listening, July is Summer break as always, we can connect on social media, and I will be back here in August again. Be well, and have a wonderful summer! HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIOS EPISODE: Daniel and Romina on X, R&D on Tour Hammarby Women's Support on Instagram Hammarby's club anthem, with English subtitled (YouTube video) Famous Hammarby tifo after (!) the derby win vs. Djurgårdens IF (from 0:50 on, YouTube video) NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

With Ana Ascencao e Silva, Eva Lotta Bohle, Andy Payne, Alex Kirby, Paul Reidy, Wayne Gamble, Christopher Hylland - on their club's or cause's season, what happened since we talked, and what the outlook is like at the moment. Plus, each guest picked one song - well, except Eva Lotta, who picked two. Union St. Gill, Arminia Bielefeld, West Ham, Rayo Vallecano, Leeds United, Argentina NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/

Fort Wayne is a city of around 260,00 in the very east of the northern half of Indiana. Like many mid-sized midwestern cities, it has been shaped by the industrialization of the late 19th century,  immigration waves from Western, Central and Southeastern Europe until the 1920s and from the rest of the world today,  deindustrialization after World War 2, the decline of urban America as well as revitalization more recently.  It also has a soccer club, founded by German immigrants for the “Promotion of Soccer Football and German Culture” in 1927. And unlike many other semi-professional or pre-professional teams, Fort Wayne SC is a proper members-owned club, with members well beyond German immigrants now, and legally a Non-Profit. It’s not just that this story is interesting - it’s also pretty well documented. FWSC has some history minded folks out there. I talked to one of them, Dan Kruse, who also happens to be the club’s president. The club appeared on my radar because they play my hometown team Goshen City FC, new to the Midwest Premier League, on the 31st. So before a longer conversation with Dan Kruse, I also got a quick word from Goshen City FC’s boss, Henrique Eichelberger, about new life in a new league, and the outlook for this season. HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE: Fort Wayne SC 1927 Goshen City FC  Midwest Premier League Underrated Eurovisions Songs: Abor and Tynna (Germany) - Baller Erika Vikman (Finland) - Ich Komme (live video from the arena, because… flying giant mic and things) Laura Thorn (Luxembourg) - La Poupée Monte Le Son  Lucio Corsi (Italy) - Volevo Essere un Duro NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. 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/