Podcast Corner: Football shows to get you in the mood ahead of the Fifa World Cup  

The World Cup is days away, so here are some football podcasts that pack a punch 

Zinedine Zidane head-butts Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final.  

2 Goals

Brian Philips is the best-selling author of Impossible Owls, an essay collection that begins in Alaska, tracking a dog race, and continues to Japan to cover sumo wrestling. It’s eclectic, to say the least. Which is also probably the best way to describe Philips’ first podcast offering, via the Ringer: 22 Goals.

Sure the title makes it sound straightforward - 22 memorable goals charting the history of the World Cup, from 1930 right up to Kylian Mbappe’s long-range effort to best Croatia in the final in 2018 - but Philips is a much more adept, adventurous storyteller than that. 

For example, the episode covering Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick in 1966 assumes all the tenets of an old-timey police procedural as Philips ponders who stole the Jules Rimet trophy.

Zinedine Zidane’s episode starts with Philips explaining what happened when he, Philips, got pulled over by a cop car after he broke up with his girlfriend.

Those introductions might be eyeroll-enducing or indulgent to some, stick with it and Philips weaves genuinely funny, intriguing tales that
also encompass the political furore of Russia and Qatar as hosts, Fifa’s fractious relationship with the African nations, and racism. No sign of Ray Houghton’s goal against Italy at USA 94 just yet though.

World Corrupt

World Corrupt is a six-parter that began on October 8. As the title suggests, it takes a look at just how Qatar was awarded the 2022 tournament - spoiler alert: Sportswashing.

While Fifa would rather people focus on the action on the pitches, it is impossible to do so this time around. 

Pod Save the World’s Tommy Vietor and Roger Bennett of Men in Blazers offer some banter but don’t shirk the tough subjects, from corruption to human rights abuses (some 6,500 migrants have reportedly died since Qatar won the hosting rights), to what we should expect from the soccer stars in terms of player protest.

The Last Cup

As for who might win the World Cup, it would be the crowning glory for the greatest player in the world, Lionel Messi - or Superman, as he’s dubbed on the Last Cup (NPR). And Superman’s greatest heartbreak? Never winning the World Cup for Argentina.

Hosted by Argentine journalist Jasmine Garsd, she looks to chart Messi’s impossibly feted career. But like the other shows, it also claims to be about more than just football, promising a tale of immigration, race, belonging, and capitalism.