To readers who are looking for light-hearted soccer commentary, I want to draw your attention to stand up comedians Ian Edwards and Jason Gillearn’s Soccer Comic Rants on the All Things Comedy podcast network. Edwards and Gillearn’s weekly podcasts provide informed and amusing updates on soccer news around the world, injecting a dose of humor into soccer fans’ dreary Mondays.
I listened to a couple of Ian Edwards’ latest “rants” to get a feel for the show. Soccer Comic Rant #52 from November 18 recapped a week of World Cup playoffs, and Edwards’ asides and zingers enlivened his recap so much that even newcomers to soccer (like yours truly) can enjoy it. Last week, the Brazilian head coach boasted that his team is going to win the World Cup. Edwards’ retort? “You might want to keep your yap shut…You don’t want to act like you’re Kreskin right now. You just want to coach.” (Here, he’s referencing The Amazing Kreskin, who was known for his clairvoyant powers and was a figure on American television in the 1970s.) Here were Edwards’ thought’s on Nigeria’s 2-0 win over Ethiopia: “You’re supposed to beat a country that’s known for not having food. So Nigeria, you did your thing, you’re in the World Cup. Congrats.” Poland’s loss to Slovakia? “Poland, get your sh-t together.”
On this week’s Soccer Comic Rant #53, Edwards hosted a conversation with Monaco player D’Angelo J. Waddington. Born in the Ivory Coast and adopted at 3 years old by a white family, Waddington then moved to Italy, where his adoptive parents put him in the Torino Calcio youth academy. He was only six years old, and was the only black athlete at the academy at the time. “At six years old, you’ve lived a full life… That’s pretty dope,” Edwards exclaimed. Waddington goes on to describe some of the challenges of being a foreign player in an Italian academy in the 1990s—Italy was one of the strongest soccer complexes in Europe, and priority was given to Italian players. The podcasts are entertaining, always informative, and an engaging medium for fans to get soccer news recaps. I’d encourage you to check it out!
