“Y entonces resolví asistir al estadio.”

“And then I resolved to attend the stadium.” began Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel García Marquez’s (exceedingly difficult to find in English) 1950 short story “El Juramento”.

I was in my teenage years, living in the heart of Friday Night Lights territory, Dallas, Texas when I first fell in love with football. Proper football — no pads, no helmets, no touchdowns or end zones. I never played the game, at least not since my mom chauffeured me to peewee soccer games at age six, where, rather than chasing the ball down with the other boys, I prefered to zone out in the midfield, staring at the sky or at the dandelions growing on the pitch until I was inevitably subbed off.

I don’t remember how I fell in love — I can’t recall what professional match first captured me, essentially changing, in many ways, my life moving forward. All I know is that it happened, and like that, every weekend became booked for what I knew would be the rest of my life.

I am not the only bookish person enamored with the beautiful game. Far from it, there is a long, long history of literary football writing.

That’s what this podcast is about: literature and football. The ways in which they combine, influence one another, and together shape the world both as it is now, and how it will be going forward.

Each episode, a guest — usually a writer of football literature — and I discuss, for some length of time, stories, literature, art, world culture, travel, and, most of all, the beautiful game.

FIRST EPISODE PREMIERING SOON

If you are a writer interested in appearing on this podcast, or a brand interested sponsoring this podcast, or just want to drop by and say something, please email: podcast [at] davidcarstens.com

Note: This email is encryped with proton mail, because privacy matters.