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Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondry's American History Tellers. In our latest series, we tell the stories of four presidential assassins and their targets.

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Really incredible, incredible.

This is Rudge and this is a new podcast, a daring adventure into sound European nights presented by Paramount Plus.

A show, well, that aims to give you all you need to enhance your viewing pleasure during that midweek wonder that is European football.

I'm talking Champions League, the Europa League and the mighty, mighty UEFA Conference League, the Kinetic Frenzy playing out across an entire continent by teams who take their clubs history.

And often their nation's history onto the field alongside them. Every single kick of the ball reinforcing the life truth that football sparkles brighter under the flood lights.

And I'm genuinely delighted that my guest and guide on this show is none other than the gent who I admire so very bloody much from his writing.

But more than that for the way he sees and understands the game itself is the chief soccer correspondent of the New York Times. Oh, welcome. Mr Rory Smith.

Hello, how are you doing? Rory, I'm so bloody excited to be with you because I do love you writing.

Well, then the other football writer, the mimey Simon Cooper, you seem to view football as a mirror that reflects back to the viewer culture, history, politics, economics to everyone who views it.

How would you describe your style? What draws you to the stories you tell?

That's that's a really good question. And yeah, I've been trying to think, because I thought you might ask me something like that. And I don't really know.

So I just I guess it's just been interested in football for nearly 40 years, which I try to hide, but it is now sadly nearly 40 years.

And not just kind of I have a team that I support. And obviously I'm English, you can tell from my accent.

But football across Europe across the world and and the fact that it is so rich and varied and it speaks to so many people in so many different ways.

I think we all kind of have our own way of enjoying football. I think that's what makes it so kind of unique and compelling is that we all look at it, look at the same game and see different things playing out and different things that matter and different things that appeal to us.

And I suppose I'm lucky enough to get to maybe explore some of those things in my job. And that's so it's just genuinely this isn't this is not much of an answer I realize, but it's just stuff that interests me and stuff that I find interesting.

I kind of assume other people might find interesting to I'm also fascinated you've established you are an English bloat more than just been in English bloat you're a Yorkshire lad.

But representing the New York Times as you do seems to get you more access with the European clubs than if you are simply writing for an English outlet they really want the American audience.

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