The Surprising Unity of Soccer
This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.One of my favorite parts of the World Cup is asking people a deceptively simple question: What team are you rooting for?In some cases the answer is obvious, but in many it isn’t. I always root for Colombia, where I am from. Yet I live in the United States. My father is Mexican. My grandfather is Argentinian. When Colombia was eliminated, I didn’t stop watching—I simply found myself cheering for someone else. My loyalties don’t compete; they accumulate.The World Cup asks us to pick a team, but in doing so, it reveals that identity is rarely confined to a single flag. People cheer for the place where they grew up, where their parents came from, where they studied abroad, or simply for a player they admire or an underdog that captures their attention.It’s an unexpected kind of unity. The tournament is organized around national competition, but it reminds us how interconnected those nations really are. For all of the flags and rivalries, the World Cup has a remarkable way of reminding us how much we share.On Sports and UnityHow to Cheer for AmericaBy Clint Smith When I watch the World Cup, I’m celebrating not what this country is, but what it can be. (From 2022) Read the article.Something Incredible Every Single GameBy Charlie Warzel Inside America’s World Cup fever dream Read the article.How the World Cup Explains the WorldBy Hanna Rosin Hanna Rosin talks with the Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer, the author of How Soccer Explains the World, about how this year’s World Cup displays a gentler form of nationalism that we haven’t seen in a while. Listen to the episode.Still Curious? When France plays soccer, you can’t look away. Sally Jenkins discusses the joys of watching Les Bleus at the World Cup. The feel-good story of the World Cup is too good to be true. Some of the people celebrating American excess are not what they seem, Will Oremus writes. Other Diversions Madonna is finally giving the world what it wants. The Rosenberg boys The newest way to go analog PSMy colleague Isabel Fattal recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. Kristin E., from Indiana, shares “a monarch butterfly on fall asters in my native-plant garden.”We’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.— Rafaela