Thank you for making 50 Episodes of The Assistant professor of Football possible! Whether you celebrate anything this season or not, I hope these days are refreshing for you, hold people and emotions if you want that, and space to breathe in if you prefer that.

Last year at this time, I read Michael Foreman’s classic picture book War Game as a Holiday special. This December special is me. That is: an audio interview with me that I gave to a fairly well known German soccer culture podcast, Brennpunkt Orange. Its host, Danny, asked good questions about my football biography, about soccer in the US, about my research, and this podcast.
Quite a few of his questions I have gotten before, casually in conversations, or in writing from listeners. So 'tis a good time to turn the tables. I am the one being interviewed today.

I took the German audio interview and, with the help of AI, have an English version of the interview for you. The German speech to English speech - AI isn’t perfect, but it’s quite remarkable how well it worked, despite the tech being still at a toddler-stage. So the voices you’re about to hear are not mine and Danny's, but two AI voices, who say in English - as best they can - what we said to each other in German in the original interview. That one, by the way, is here.

Until after my semester break, in 4 weeks. And thank you, again!

(the photo of me for this episode is from Fall 2022 in Graz, at Sturm's old ground, before a derby vs. GAK)

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

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/

SC Freiburg, a former yoyo club from a pretty progressive town on the very southwestern edge of Germany is now firmly established in the Bundesliga. The club is 120 years old this year, and just a few days ago published its first investigation into its own history during Nazi rule in Germany. It’s one of the German clubs that paid attention early on to football for women, is a pioneer in the establishment of youth academies in Germany, and also notable for the long tenure of some of its recent coaches. It’s the kind of club that likes its coaches biking to the training ground, and that historically doesn’t see relegation as the end of the world. And I think they’re flying under the radar undeservedly and too often in English speaking football media.
Patrick Bucher is with us to remedy that, from the working group on the Sportclub’s history. Uwe Schellinger, the mastermind behind the new club archive also deserves thanks for this episode coming together.

SC FREIBURG MUSIC AND OTHER HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

First known SCF Song from the 1925, Nur in der Freiheit ist's uns wohl (Youtube video, the song was rediscovered by Schellinger and recorded only recently)

Red Button - Für uns immer vorn (Youtube video of a classic from the 90s)

Wheezy Thai - SCF (Youtube video)

SC Freiburg Club Archive (in German)

Book "Spielball der Ideologie?" on SCF's history under the Nazi regime

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

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/

I've said something like this before: I believe the means of global soccer production should be controlled by fans, players and the community the club is in, collectively or cooperatively, and not by firms and companies based half a world away from the clubs in question. So, this podcast is not a natural avenue for an American multi-club owner of European clubs to share his story.
In an exception to that pattern, here is a conversation with Matt Rizzetta, an owner of - precisely - a company (named North Sixth Group, in New York) that controls clubs half a world away. Most of our conversation looks behind the scenes of his involvement in Campobasso FC, in Italy's 3rd league, from questions over how investors find clubs in the first place to whether he could rename the club. While I believe I went in with a level of empathy, I also asked perhaps the most critical questions I’ve asked a guest yet, and what resulted was an interesting and respectful conversation.

And: you can WIN a copy of David Kilpatrick's lovely short book 95 Theses on the reformation of Football. I'll tell you how a few minutes into the episode.

HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Campobasso FC official website
Brooklyn FC and Project Underdog's website
Matt Rizzetta on Instagram
Forbes Magazine on Campobasso's Hollywood investors and on Campobasso's promotion

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

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/