The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.

About 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.

Publisher

Philipp Gollner

Category

history · society & culture · sports

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Nov 2022

Latest episode

19 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

87 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   19 Jul 2026

   An Austrian and an Indian walk into the World Cup...

   ... or: an Economist and a Tactics Nerd on what the last 6 weeks tell us about where the game is going. A spontaneous and incomplete post-final reaction. HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE: The recent CNN piece with me on why a draw "sometimes feels like a win" Hörfehler Podcast, me on soccer in the U.S. Florian Ederer, X Dhruv Kapoor, X 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 fe...

2. 

   10 Jun 2026

   Season Round-Up with Guests and Music! Titles, Finals, Chaos, Hope, and Relegation

   The traditional The Assistant Professor of Football season round-up is back. I asked guests from this past year, and some from previous years whose clubs had remarkable seasons of one sort or the other how their clubs have fared, what moment stands out, and what song best embodies their club's vibe this past season. They are: Medea Voegeli, professional historian and historian of FC Thun, from episode 76. Thun are the utterly sensational champions of Switzerland this year — after just having ...

3. 

   25 May 2026

   World Cup 1994: An American Game, Revisited

   If you're old enough — what do you remember about the 1994 World Cup? And if you're not, try to picture it. Soccer in the United States before MLS existed. Matches inside the Pontiac Silverdome, a domed football stadium in Michigan — humid, bizarre, and somehow full. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Record attendances that still haven't been broken. A tournament that, by most outside, European or Latin American accounts, had no business working as well as it did. The standard story is that 1994 pla...

Who has been a guest on The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Ana Ascencao e Silva
• Eva Lotta Bohle
• Andy Payne
• Alex Kirby
• Paul Reidy

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

17 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

37 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 44 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

56

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

82

Contact The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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