Vladimir Putin: we've seen him shirtless on horseback, wielding a hockey stick, and maneuvering for global domination. But how does Putin's Russia really feel about football? Host David Goldblatt talks with Russian journalist Sasha Goryunov about what the West misunderstands about the 2018 World Cup host country. Plus, we preview the tournament, visit the CONIFA World Football Cup of unrecognized nations, and welcome two new cohosts to the show.

Goals, tragedies, victories, politics—and, yes, songs. Host David Goldblatt is back to guide you through football's biggest tournament! Season 2 starts June 8, 2018.

“We have made Italy; now we have to make Italians,” Massimo d’Azeglio famously stated. Has football made Italians? And how do the country’s anxieties play out on the pitch? Goldblatt talks with historian John Foot about Italian football and its relationship to politics — from Mussolini’s use of the sport as a tool of fascism, to Silvio Berlusconi bringing Italy to the top of the football world, to current anxieties about immigration and national identity — and the failure to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years.

When the World Cup begins, the absence of just two countries will mean that over a third of the global population will not be represented. India and China are not traditional football powers, but in recent years they’ve become huge and lucrative markets for the sport. In this episode, writer Supriya Nair talks about the new middle-class popularity of the Premier League in India, the clunky attempts to revamp the Indian domestic game, and her own private ritual of staying up until 3am to watch her favorite team: Italy's AC Milan.

Liverpool is a political football city like no other. It’s also swimming in just as much money as the rest of the game. This week, Goldblatt heads to watch his beloved Tottenham Hotspur take on Liverpool FC; but also visits the activists from Spirit of Shankly and Fans Supporting Foodbanks, who do their work outside the stadium, in his quest to find out what it means for him to be a fan.

In the 1980s and 90s, Colombian football was some of the best it had ever been. The price: near-total control by the country’s drug lords. This week, Goldblatt talks with fan and novelist Juan Gabriel Vásquez about what it was like growing up in Colombia during that time, how following the sport helps him see his country’s changes, and whether there’s any such thing as a pure game.

All Shireen Ahmed wanted to do was play — but college officials kept her off the pitch because she wanted to wear her headscarf, or hijab. This week, the player, advocate, and coach talks about her fight to get back on the field, what football means in the global South, and the day FIFA lifted its ban on hijab.

One of the top teams in Nigeria is Mountain of Fire and Miracles FC, a Pentecostal club in Lagos. It’s a team that provides stability for its players within the fraught world of Nigerian domestic football — and also represents the country on the global stage. “Someone is sick, we all pray and fast,” says church sporting director Godwin Enakhena. “There is a deal that’s coming, we fast and pray about it, and say ‘God help this young man get this deal.’” This week, he and David Goldblatt discuss his team’s remarkable rise from amateur youth club to elite team, the challenges facing Nigerian domestic clubs, and the rules that keep MFM FC on track.

If Werner Herzog made a football movie, what would it look like? Host David Goldblatt talks football (soccer) and cinema (movies) with the celebrated filmmaker (and reasonable center forward). Herzog talks about falling in love with the game when he watched a young Pele play in Munich, the cinematography of the TV football experience, and the football film he dreams of making.

David Goldblatt revels in the cheeky culture of English football chants. Season 1 starts March 15, 2018.