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Clinton gets serious about soccer
By Jon Herskovitz
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is serious about his soccer. He is a cheerleader for the US bid to host the World Cup; proud of the prowess on the pitch in South Africa for the red, white and blue; a fan of the noisemaking vuvuzela and a thinker who sees the beautiful game as a way to gain insight on disputes between ethnic groups and nations.
Clinton, still jubilant after attending a dramatic U.S. victory in stoppage time over Algeria a night ago, spoke to a roundtable of reporters for about an hour on Thursday. For him, the game is an intellectual pursuit and a passion. One book he cited was How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory on Globalization, by Franklin Foer. Foer offered some insight on his theories in an interview a few years ago with Mother Jones magazine.
The game has also served a window to the world outside the United States for Clinton who was introduced to the sport and the passion of soccer when he was a Rhodes Scholar in England in the late 1960s.
After the U.S. match against Algeria, Clinton shot the breeze in the locker room with the American players and offered a few words of wisdom that were perhaps more philosophical than any pep speech they have heard from a coach.
