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Radio Atlantic

For Love of the Game

Radio Atlantic

The Atlantic

News, Society & Culture, Politics

4.32.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2022

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Part of the appeal of the World Cup is watching a country’s finest soccer players represent their nations. For many fans, though, it doesn’t have to just be root-root-root for the home team. Atlantic staff writer Clint Smith will be cheering for the U.S., but he will also have his eye on Senegal.  Smith’s attachment to the game is personal, stretching back to when he first started soccer playing as a little boy. In this episode of Radio Atlantic, Smith talks about the joy of soccer, the overt racism in the game, and why he’ll be cheering for the team of a small country in West Africa. Tape in this episode comes from FIFA, UEFA, ESPN, and TRT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:05.0

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0:10.0

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0:17.0

Learn more at dashlane.com

0:20.0

Hey there, I'm Clint Smith, staff writer at The Atlantic.

0:32.0

And joining me for a couple special episodes this year about the World Cup is my fellow staff writer and fellow Arsenal fan Franklin Four.

0:38.0

What's up, Frank?

0:39.0

Come on, new gunners.

0:40.0

Come on.

0:41.0

So, Frank, there's a little bit of an age difference between us and...

0:45.0

Not much, not much.

0:46.0

It's all in your head.

0:47.0

It's all in your head.

0:48.0

So, what is age?

0:49.0

It's an imaginary construct.

0:50.0

But if we are to lean into that imaginary construct, for me in the 90s, I was a kid who was just beginning to fall in love with the game.

0:58.0

I started playing for the first time in 1994 when I was six years old.

1:04.0

And I'm curious what your relationship to the game was.

1:07.0

Like when I was discovering my love for the game and making my way through grilled cheese sandwiches and reckless soccer.

1:14.0

You were thinking about the game in much more sophisticated terms.

1:17.0

Don't let the grays in my beard confuse you, Clint.

1:20.0

I'm not your grandfather.

...

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