For much of 2020, the general consensus amongst the sporting community has seemingly been the desire to get the beautiful game back to normal as quickly possible. For some however, the unfortunate hiatus has offered the opportunity for retrospect, to uncover the great stories that have shadowed, often created, the most famous results on the pitch; the fables and figures that have long surrendered their moment in the spotlight.
Enter The Guardian, with a brilliant bitesize pod series that travails the annals of football history, and provide the stories with the audience they deserve, in ‘Forgotten Stories of Football’.
With a handful already available to consume, it’s ears open, eyes wide as the listener is regaled with tales from the soccer crypt, leaving the recipient with a perpetual feeling of ‘Why the bloody hell haven’t I heard this before?’. So prepare to transverse the globe and encounter dubious characters and stunning stories, such as the France football captain who would murder for Adolf Hitler, why the white ball - now the staple of the game - wasn’t seem to be in vogue, and how the short-lived English Super Cup came into existence.
Utilising the minimalism that has made podcasts such as crime thriller series ‘Casefile’ a global sensation, with superb sound production for content written by some of The Guardian’s best journalists, such as Jacob Steinberg and Daniel Harris, spanning over 100 years of sporting history from across the footballing planet, the stories are narrated by exceptionally talented actors and feature rich sound design and specially composed music for the series, which was released earlier in 2020. The highlight so far of the new series has undoubtedly been the double-hander illuminating the life of Abraham Klein - the man who survived the Nazis and the Holocaust to become the greatest referee of all time, a story that really has to heard to be believed.
‘Forgotten Stories of Football’ claims to be the podcast discovering and bringing to life the best football stories you’ve probably never heard of.
Hopefully soon it’ll be the podcast everyone has heard of.
