My guests are Sam Kelly and Daniel Edwards from the Hand of Pod podcast, which focusses on Argentine football. I met up with Sam and Daniel while I was down in Buenos Aires and asked them about their experiences as foreigners getting to know the Argentine game and what foreign visitors - especially those who don't speak any/much Spanish - need to know.

In this podcast, I speak to Fernando Romero Nuñez, a sports journalist with the Buenos Aires Herald, about the evolution of Argentinian national identity and where football fits into that. We look at the emergence of the sense of an 'Argentine identity' in the 19th century, the growth of football and local-founded clubs.

We also discuss the 'sibling rivalry' with Uruguay and how that differs from Argentina's clashes with Brazil. We look back at 'La Nuestra' ('Our Thing'), and the clashing styles of Cesar Menotti and Carlos Bilardo, both World Cup winning coaches. 

Also, what does the 2022 World Cup win say about Argentina today?

I was in Buenos Aires recently and visited a number of places that I had already written about in my first book, Origin Stories: The Pioneers Who Took Football to the World. In this episode, I was priveleged to have access to the British Cemetery in Buenos Aires, the Buenos Aires English High School, where football was pioneered, and spoke to a historian at Quilmes Atlético Club, the oldest club in Argentina that is still playing.