Soccer World Cup 2026
More Than a Game

Everything used to be so much simpler: you could be sure that the soccer players you would see on the pitch were real men. And these days? Though social debates have now found their way into sport, soccer is still battling with outdated gender role concepts. We take a look at the status quo.

Mexico, USA, Canada: Soccer has evolved very differently in each of them. From Mexico, with its millennia-old tradition of ballgames, to the big unknown that is Canada, we introduce you to the three World Cup host nations and their soccer traditions.

Soccer through the lens of Critical Theory: Pure passion or ideological “opium”? How mass culture channels emotions—and diverts political attention.

FIFA is promising a greener World Cup. Yet the 2026 tournament will be bigger than ever before. Air travel, high temperatures and social issues make it clear just how difficult it is to make global soccer sustainable.

Soccer is more than just a game — it is also a space where questions of social belonging play out. The case of former national team player Mesut Özil shows how identity, public expectations, and political debates can collide within Germany’s national team — and create divisions.

Germany’s national flag was rarely seen in everyday life for decades. When the men’s soccer World Cup was held in 2006, however, the country unexpectedly erupted in a euphoric blaze of black, red and gold – a phenomenon that had already died down again by the time Germany staged EURO 2024. So what happened?

For over thirty years, Aysun Bademsoy has portrayed German‑Turkish women whose lives intersect soccer, migration, and identity—from Berlin’s first girls’ team to the generational lens of Game Changers. An interview with the filmmaker.

Thomas Hitzlsperger is a soccer legend, a popular TV presenter, and the author of Mutproben (Tests of Courage), a candid memoir shaped in large part by his coming out after his retirement as a professional player.