Episode 48 – Soccer in a Football Nation I – US Soccer History

On June 11, the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off with Mexico playing against South Africa. While Mexico, Canada, and the United States are hosting this World Cup together, the majority of matches will take place on American soil in stadiums that have originally been built for different sports. Already the fact that Americans call the world’s favorite sports “soccer” underlines its peculiar status in a “football nation.” But while earlier professional soccer leagues struggled to attract both spectators and investors, the MLS has started to gain supporters and the number of American kids playing soccer keeps rising. President Donald J. Trump even suggested a year ago that American football should rename itself and allow soccer to become football. Might the 2026 World Cup propel men’s soccer to the same status currently held by baseball and football? And why did soccer fail to launch when other pastimes became established at American colleges? Is American soccer any different from the way Europeans play? Who better to ask than the author of Soccer in American Culture: The Beautiful Game’s Struggle for Status (University of Missouri Press, 2022), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title. Professor White used to play soccer himself for Andover and Amherst, and also coached girls’ soccer. G. Edward White is David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, and twice a senior fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a fellow of the Society of American Historians, and a member of the American Law Institute. White’s 20 published books have won numerous honors and awards, among them a final listing for the Pulitzer Prize in history. His academic career included appointments across the United States as well as at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) and at the London School of Economics. He originally studied at Amherst College, went on to Yale University for a doctorate in American Studies, before he obtained his J.D. from Harvard Law School.