Grant interviews his friend Wright Thompson (at 32:04), a senior writer at ESPN and the author of the recent New York Times Best-Seller Pappyland: A Story Of Family, Fine Bourbon and the Things That Last. They discuss his book, his interest in Kentucky and his approach to writing, including an anthology's worth of Thompson's phenomenal soccer writing over the years. Those include stories by Thompson on Luis Suárez and Uruguayan soccer, Brazilian protests ahead of World Cup 2014, the culture of Italian football, Paul Pogba, the Boca Juniors-River Plate rivalry and the death of Fiorentina captain Davide Astori.
Before that, Grant and Chris Wittyngham break down a busy soccer weekend, including: the USWNT's 2-0 win over Brazil; Inter's big 3-0 victory over Milan; whether we have concerns about Christian Pulisic at Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel; Liverpool's nosedive; Man City's breathtaking run; whether Messi will stay or leave Barcelona; and Bayern Munich and Atlético Madrid dropping more points in Germany and Spain.
This episode of Fútbol with Grant Wahl is brought to you by Fanatiz. Frustrated that you can't get games from Spain's La Liga on your cable or satellite system? Sign up to stream Fanatiz. On Fanatiz, you can watch all the action in La Liga and other international leagues and tournaments live and on-demand from your mobile phone, tablet or directly on your TV with the Fanatiz app. Fanatiz features channels you know, like BeIN Sports in English and Spanish, GolTV and many more. And it costs only $7.99 a month.
If you’d like to try Fanatiz for yourself, you can get a free week-long trial by going to fntz.co/Grant-FZ.
ESPN's Wright Thompson; Chris Wittyngham on Soccer News