Hi, I'm Grant Wall, and welcome to the Planet Football Podcast.

We are back, and I want to thank you for your patience during my book leave.

What's cool is that we are usually going to have not just one but two episodes now per week moving forward

One will have me and S.I. Brian Strauss talking about events in the soccer world and the other will feature an in-depth interview with an

intriguing figure in the world's most popular sport. Before we get started if you

enjoy the podcast you can do us a huge favor by subscribing, liking, and giving us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get this

podcast. That gives us a boost on the charts and we need to get our numbers up.

Joining me now is S.I. charts and we need to get our numbers up.

Joining me now is S.I. is Brian Strauss.

And before I forget, since our last podcast in May,

Brian wrote your first Sports Illustrated cover story on Neymar.

Congratulations, my friend.

Thanks.

That's not all that's happened in soccer since May.

Some other things, it has not been a slow six months. No, the name our experience was cool

and it feels like it was eight years ago. You told me a story though and we'll address other

topics like the US

you know failing to qualify for the world. Yeah there's that. But you told me a

story about your interview situation with Neymar and his entourage out in

LA that made me giggle in which his and his entourage

entourage kept kind of encroaching on the interview,

leaving you to sort of try and shoe the entourage away.

...