More than a game: Finding belonging through soccer

Soccer is often described as the world's game. It crosses borders and brings people together through languages and cultures in ways few other sports can. And every four years, the FIFA World Cup turns that connection into a global spectacle, drawing billions of people into the same unfolding story of victory, heartbreak, and national pride.Soccer has the power to bring people together, but it can also reflect the divisions that already exist beyond the field.So who actually gets to belong?From local clubs to the FIFA World Cup, the experience of the game can be very different depending on who is playing. For this episode of the Big Thinking Podcast, Karine Morin is joined by Greg Yerashotis, Assistant Professor at Trent University. For years, he has looked at the relationship between sport and social inclusion, more recently through the lives of immigrant youth playing soccer in Toronto. Their experiences offer a different way of seeing the World Cup, and of asking what belonging looks like when the whole world is watching.