The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.
The academic treatment for English-speakers who get that soccer is more than gamedays, stars and goals. Who wonder about the histories, subcultures and politics that make the game so different from many American sports cultures; and who care about a critical take on soccer as a global capitalist machine. A European-guided journey, with one expert "visiting professor" each episode.
The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.
Go West, and Grow up Playing Soccer! How do so many internationals play for American Colleges?
The phrase "go west!" was not coined by the Village People or the Pet Shop Boys, but by Horace Greeley, a famous newspaper editor a long time ago. And seen from Europe, all of the United States is West. So that’s what Luca Puster tells his young European clients who just finish High School and are considering college: Go west young man, and grow up playing football. Or soccer. How do they find American colleges? What makes them come here, what is attractive about this step in their football and study careers? How do they find the game here, the current crisis around immigration and politics, what do they take back?
Luca is the co-founder of Students Go West, an agency that helps bring European footballers into American collegiate soccer programs. He also played for the GAK in Graz, Austria, and for Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.
HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Students Go West, website
Percentages of international players in the top NCAA teams, 2023
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Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind
Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/