Christened the “Indiana Jones of soccer journalism” by Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated, James Montague had barely survived the interminable journey from Australia to London only to plunge into a place without time or space–the Football Scholars Forum online.
What ensued was a vigorous discussion of his 2014 book Thirty-One-Nil: On the Road With Football’s Outsiders: A World Cup Odyssey. Montague revealed the African sources of inspiration for the project; the challenges of writing an ambitious travelogue on the unglamorous edges of world football; the pleasures of lessons learned and insights gained. One big surprise sprung by the Skype conversation and Twitter backchannel was the discovery of Next Goal Wins, a documentary film about American Samoa’s World Cup team chronicled so evocatively in 31-Nil. (Click here to watch the trailer.)
Participants: Danyel Reiche, Alex Galarza, Roger Kittleson, Andrew Guest, David Kilpatrick, Martha Saavedra, Chris Henderson, Tony Adedze, Steven Apostolov, Alejandro Gonzales, Liz Timbs, and Peter Alegi.
Click here to listen to an audio recording of the session.
