MLS's 24th season starts on March 2, and Grant sits down to talk about all things MLS with commissioner Don Garber, who just extended his contract with the league through the end of 2023. They discuss MLS owner ambition, continued expansion and how the league has used data research to make big strategic decisions, among other topics. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Feb 21, 2019•35 min
Grant sits down with Minnesota United's Collin Martin, a creative midfielder who's entering his seventh MLS season. Last year Martin came out as gay on Pride Day and received an outpouring of support from people around the world. He and Grant have a wide-ranging conversation about a number of topics. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Feb 14, 2019•30 min
Grant goes one-on-one with three of the biggest names in MLS: Zlatan Ibrahimovic of the LA Galaxy, Wayne Rooney of D.C. United and Bastian Schweinsteiger of the Chicago Fire. All three bring their unique personalities to the forefront, shedding light on their MLS experience, their shared past at Manchester United and some moments that will make you laugh ahead of the start of the MLS season on March 2. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.c...
Feb 07, 2019•27 min
Jonathan Liew, the chief sportswriter for the UK-based independent, is one of the finest journalists and commentators working in English today. He joins Grant for a wide-ranging conversation on the craft of writing, the similarities and differences between American and British journalism, his columns on racism in sports, his love of cricket and his recent trip to Los Angeles to cover the baseball World Series. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://red...
Jan 31, 2019•40 min
Grant sits down for a candid interview with Jozy Altidore about his recent visit to Haiti, his future with Toronto FC and the USMNT and any suggestions he might have for Christian Pulisic about joining a team in the English Premier League. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Jan 24, 2019•22 min
It's one of the most remarkable stories in sports of the past year: Against all odds, a fan-driven push to keep the Columbus Crew in Ohio—instead of moving to Austin, Texas—worked. Diehard Crew fan Mark Titus of The Ringer and One Shining Podcast joins Grant to talk about the success story of #SaveTheCrew. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Jan 17, 2019•34 min
As we enter a women's World Cup year, Grant interviews World Cup champion Julie Ertz of the U.S. women's national team and the Chicago Red Stars. A fun discussion ensues about her thoughts on the World Cup, her uncanny ability to score on set-piece headers and her power couple status with her Super Bowl-winning husband Zack Ertz of the Philadelphia Eagles. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Jan 10, 2019•24 min
Grant starts 2019 right by interviewing two intriguing figures: 18-year-old American forward Josh Sargent, who scored on his debuts for Werder Bremen and the USMNT in 2018 and looks forward to a bright year ahead; and Jordan Gardner, an American soccer investor who discusses his strategy to buy a club in Denmark and use it to develop young American players. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Jan 03, 2019•36 min
For years, Khalida Popal has been the face of the Afghanistan women's national team, which has been a success story bringing the sport of soccer to more women in her home country. Popal helped raise her team's profile and even got sponsorships from Soccer Without Borders and Hummel, which produced uniforms with headscarves for the team. But recently Popal did her own investigation and found evidence that Afghan soccer federation officials, including president Keramuddin Karim, had physically and...
Dec 27, 2018•46 min
Grant visits 19-year-old USMNT midfielder Tyler Adams at his New Jersey home and speaks to him about his impending move to RB Leipzig in the German Bundesliga, what he's been doing to prepare for the move, what he has been told by Leipzig officials about his chance to win playing time and his thoughts on new USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter, his desire to become US captain and the year ahead for the national team. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redc...
Dec 20, 2018•33 min
Grant gets into the soccer side of HBO's Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy, founder and CEO of The Ringer and host of the Bill Simmons Podcast. Simmons talks about being deeply involved in Southern California youth soccer over the last five years with his daughter, including starting a new youth club. He also laments the U.S. Soccer Development Academy and shares his thoughts on MLS as an LAFC season ticket holder, as well as his experience attending a Mexico-USMNT World Cup qualifier at the Estadio ...
Dec 13, 2018•45 min
Grant has a fun interview with Katie Nolan, the host of Always Late With Katie Nolan on ESPN+, about how she fell in love with Liverpool FC, her fascination with Mohamed Salah, her thoughts on soccer fans in the United States, how she puts her show together and her plans for a pilgrimage to Anfield. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Dec 06, 2018•35 min
Grant interviews the Wall Street Journal's Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg on their new book "The Club: How The English Premier League Became The Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force In Sports." Based on more than 100 interviews, including such figures as Arsene Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson, Daniel Levy, David Dein and John W. Henry, the book charts the course of the Premier League from its origins as a breakaway from the English Football League to its status now as a global sports colossus. ...
Nov 29, 2018•42 min
Grant interviews David Amoyal, the Boston-based Italian soccer maven who hosts the Calcioland Podcast, edits the English-language website of the Woj-for-soccer Gianluca Dimarzio, writes columns for ESPNFC and The Athletic and appears regularly on SiriusXM. David shares his thoughts on everything that's happening lately in Italian soccer, which appears to be going through a renaissance. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Nov 22, 2018•38 min
Clint Smith is a former Division I soccer player at Davidson and a huge Arsenal fan who has written occasionally on soccer for The New Yorker. He's also a regular on the podcast Pod Save the People; a Harvard doctoral candidate whose research interests include mass incarceration, the sociology of race and racism, and the history of U.S. inequality; a former national poetry slam champion; and the author of a poetry book, Counting Descent, that was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He’s widely ...
Nov 15, 2018•44 min
Grant interviews Abby Wambach, the World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and the all-time leading goal-scorer in international soccer history. Wambach retired from playing in 2015, and she was recently announced as the founding chair of the advisory group for Copa90 to guide its editorial, talent and commercial plans for coverage of women’s soccer as we move toward next summer’s women’s World Cup. She also has a new book coming out next April called Wolfpack: How Women Claim Power, ...
Nov 08, 2018•55 min
Grant interviews Eddie Johnson, the former USMNT forward whose 15-year playing career ended in 2015 due to a heart condition. These days Johnson is working as a skills-development coach in Orlando for all ages, from kids to pro players like Christian Pulisic, Cyle Larin and soon Dom Dwyer and Sydney Leroux. Johnson provides his candid thoughts on what American soccer needs to tap inner-city kids like he was—and what sharing his life story could do for African-American kids around the country. Ad...
Nov 01, 2018•36 min
The new National Soccer Hall of Fame opens this weekend in Frisco, Tex., and Grant was there to interview executive director Djorn Buchholz about all the cool things inside the new HOF. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Oct 18, 2018•17 min
Grant interviews ESPN's Bob Ley, one of the seminal soccer and TV sports broadcasters of the past 40 years. The focus here is on Ley's legendary experience in the soccer world, from the New York Cosmos to covering World Cups from 1982 to 2014, with some epic stories to tell along the way. Then Grant interviews Antonee Robinson, the 21-year-old left back who's playing for Wigan (on loan from Everton) and is trying to bring some stability to a position on the field that has dogged the U.S. for man...
Oct 11, 2018•52 min
Grant interviews Derek Rae, who's everywhere these days—Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon Prime and even the EA FIFA19 video game—about his personal journey and how he approaches his job. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Oct 04, 2018•41 min
Grant meets up in NYC with Tony Sanneh. They talk about Sanneh's standout performance in World Cup 2002, some hilarious stories from his career in Germany, his thoughts on being snubbed from the National Soccer Hall of Fame and the work he’s doing these days for his foundation, which last week was named a finalist for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s 2018 Sports Award. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Sep 27, 2018•42 min
Grant interviews one of the most interesting people in American soccer media: Pablo Maurer, who covers D.C. United for The Athletic. They talk Wayne Rooney and D.C. United's new stadium, but their discussion also ranges into Maurer's remarkable photography work (including the viral Abandoned States project), his work as a professional mechanic for high-end cars (including those owned by MLS players) and his stories on Johan Cruyff's Washington Diplomats, NASL's old Team America and the Spanish c...
Sep 20, 2018•47 min
After the U.S.'s 2-0 friendly loss to Brazil, Grant and Brian discuss the game and Earnie Stewart's still-ongoing search to hire a new head coach. Then they discuss the new UEFA and CONCACAF Nations Leagues and debate whether a competitive Nations League game might be more useful than low-key friendlies against even the best teams like Brazil. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Sep 11, 2018•38 min
Ahead of Friday's USA-Brazil friendly, Grant sits down with Zack Steffen, the 23-year-old goalkeeper for the USMNT and Columbus Crew. They talk about his Man of the Match performance in June against France, his rise with the Columbus Crew, his thoughts on the goalkeeper position and his goals for the career that lies ahead. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Sep 06, 2018•23 min
Back from vacation, Grant reconnects with Brian to talk about Brian's interviews with Wayne Rooney and FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Plus the guys give their thoughts on the still-ongoing US men’s coaching search and the career of Clint Dempsey. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Sep 05, 2018•55 min
Grant interviews Roma’s Monchi, widely regarded as one of the premier directors of football in world soccer. Monchi goes in depth on how he built his post-playing career as the director of football for 16 years at Sevilla, how he developed a strategy for identifying talent and why he decided to move to Roma in 2017. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Aug 30, 2018•21 min
Grant interviews John Halloran of American Soccer Now and The Equalizer on the state of the U.S. women’s national team after its victory in the Tournament of Nations and how things look heading into friendlies against Chile, October’s World Cup qualifying tournament and next summer’s World Cup. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Aug 23, 2018•25 min
Grant interviews Jesse Marsch, who recently left his job as head coach of the New York Red Bulls to take an assistant coaching job with RB Leipzig in the German Bundesliga. Marsch explains why he took the Leipzig job, how he has assimilated quickly and how he feels about the open U.S. men’s coaching job. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Aug 16, 2018•36 min
Kyle Martino of NBC Sports joins Grant from England for a fun discussion about the new Premier League season, which starts on Friday, and his thoughts on the state of U.S. Soccer after his run for federation president and his new role with Street Soccer USA. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Aug 09, 2018•35 min
Grant and Brian discuss what's on their mind at the start of the English Premier League season, and they also share their thoughts on the MLS All-Star Game. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Aug 07, 2018•32 min
