Heroes & Humans of Football

Heroes & Humans of Football

Exploring an individual in football every Thursday. Hosted by Simon Kuper, a Financial Times columnist, and Mehreen Khan, Economics Editor of The Times, the podcast covers people such as Mbappé, Messi, Rapinoe and Abramovich. Simon Kuper, described by Time Magazine as "one of the world's leading writers on soccer," has been to the last nine World Cups and owns Europe's largest football library. Mehreen Khan started her career in sports journalism – and now she's back. Blending socio-political and pop-cultural narratives, she sees football as a brilliant shortcut to also understanding societies, economics, and politics. Follow @heroesandhumans everywhere. Instagram TikTok Facebook X Visit our website for news and updates: heroesandhumans.com

Episodes

Jude Bellingham: Born in England, made in Europe

May 30, 2024 • 66 mins
Jude Bellingham could go down as the best English player to never play in the Premier League, but how did he go from a shy and polite young boy from Stourbridge, to an integral part of Real Madrid's push for the Champions League title this season? This episode describes the careful and precise decisions of Jude Bellingham's career so far that have led him to the biggest stage of world football, despite still being 20 years old. Fr...
Mark as Played

Carlo Ancelotti: The Godfather of the Champions League

May 23, 2024 • 60 mins
Carlo Ancelotti, son of poor Italian farmers, could be about to win a record fifth Champions League with Real Madrid. That’s pretty good for a guy whose managerial career started with him refusing to sign Roberto Baggio. This episode describes how the nicest man in football learned how to handle the egomaniacs around him, give players the power, and always made sure that everybody ate well together. The secrets of “quiet leadership...
Mark as Played

Mohammed bin Salman: The most powerful man in football?

May 16, 2024 • 45 mins
Mohammed bin Salman may be the most influential person in global football, even though he doesn’t seem to like the game. In 2021, the Saudi millennial crown prince became the ultimate owner of Newcastle United, when the Premier League club was bought by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. The country’s de facto leader is also pumping billions into the Saudi Pro League, where Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar are on the crown’s payroll...
Mark as Played

The Leadership Secrets of Jürgen Klopp

May 9, 2024 • 72 mins
Jürgen Klopp resigns as Liverpool manager this month after a nine-year love affair with the club and city, where he became practically a benign cult leader. Above and beyond the Champions League and English title that he won with his “Heavy metal football”, he offered a model of leadership so lacking in our time.  The most charismatic manager in football—those teeth visible from outer space, that laugh, that way with words—won't be...
Mark as Played

Uncancelling Hakan Şükür

May 2, 2024 • 47 mins
Hakan Şükür is Turkey’s greatest ever footballer, highest goalscorer, and still the man who holds the record for scoring the fastest goal in a World Cup after just 11 seconds in 2002. But for the last nine years, he’s been living in self-imposed exile in the US, moonlighting as an Uber driver, and having his legacy wiped from the records of Turkish football history. Turkey’s ruling AKP party has branded him a “terrorist”, and even ...
Mark as Played

Who is Liverpool's new manager Arne Slot?

April 30, 2024 • 30 mins
Who is Arne Slot? Simon Kuper, who grew up in the Netherlands and remains a Dutch football obsessive, reveals all about the new Liverpool manager. Join Heroes & Humans for our first ever emergency episode to hear about the new Klopp mini-me. The Dutchman from a family of schoolteachers is Klopp without the charisma and the teeth visible from outer space. He’s even practically German (well, ten minutes’ drive from the border). We ha...
Mark as Played

The Fall of Arsène Wenger

April 25, 2024 • 51 mins
From innovator to "specialist in failure," this riveting episode charts Arsène Wenger's steep fall at Arsenal. His pioneering vision had remade English football, introducing new tactics, diets, and a cosmopolitan ethos that redefined excellence. The unbeaten "Invincibles" season cemented his legend, but also marked the start of a tragic decline. As richer clubs co-opted Wenger's methods, his stubborn penny-pinching while Arsenal's...
Mark as Played

The Rise of Arsène Wenger

April 18, 2024 • 50 mins
From his humble beginnings in an Alsatian village to his revolutionary tenure at Arsenal from 1996 to 2004, Wenger's journey is a testament to his innovative spirit and enduring influence on English football. Exploring Arsène Wenger's meteoric rise at Arsenal, this first episode of a two-part series delves into the origins and golden years of one of the Premier League's most unforgettable managers. Starting in Duttlenheim, where W...
Mark as Played

Mo Salah: Egyptian King

April 11, 2024 • 48 mins
Mohamed Salah is the greatest player to emerge from a football-mad part of the world that has rarely produced elite talent on the level of the clinical, curly-haired winger: the Arab world.  Born in a humble town in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, Salah is an icon in Africa and the Middle East and ranks among the greatest Muslim athletes of the modern era. The 31 year-old’s breakthrough in European football may neve...
Mark as Played

Pep Guardiola: GOAT or Human?

April 4, 2024 • 85 mins
Born in the Catalan village of Santpedor, Pep's early life was steeped in the resurgence of Catalan identity post-Franco. His childhood, marked by the isolation & cultural defiance of his village, was a prelude to a career that would challenge and redefine football norms. At 14, Pep left the village for the Masia, Barcelona's famed academy, embedding himself in a milieu far removed from his humble beginnings. It was here, in the fe...
Mark as Played

Roman Abramovich: Should Chelsea fans still love him?

March 28, 2024 • 62 mins
Roman Abramovich's story unfolds with the complexity of a man who came from Russia to reshape Premier League football. Starting life in a nondescript communist town, orphaned and adopted within an anti-Semitic Soviet Union, Abramovich's acute sensitivity to others' desires propelled him from selling rubber ducks to amassing a fortune amid the chaos of post-Soviet privatisation.  His acquisition of Chelsea FC in 2003 marked a pivota...
Mark as Played

Kylian Mbappé: Made in Paris (and bound for Madrid)

March 21, 2024 • 63 mins
Tracing Kylian Mbappé’s path from the suburbs of Paris to the pinnacle of global football. With two decades of living in Paris, Simon brings an insider's perspective to Mbappé's early life, highlighting the city's rich football culture that has nurtured talents like Pogba, Kanté, and Mahrez.  The Paris region is the biggest talent pool in global football, ahead of Buenos Aires. To understand the essence of Mbappé, it is necessary t...
Mark as Played

Welcome To Heroes & Humans of Football

March 8, 2024 • 2 mins
Simon Kuper and Mehreen Khan take the heroes of football and show you the human behind them. Uncovering the very strange journeys some of them have made to the place where we got to see them, their life stories, and the societies that gave birth to them, we get to know these football people through a new lens.  The two hosts love football in very different ways. Is the World Cup just for football tourists trying to pretend they lov...
Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    Dateline NBC

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.

    Stuff You Should Know

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    The Nikki Glaser Podcast

    The Nikki Glaser Podcast

    Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.

    White Devil

    White Devil

    Shootings are not unusual in Belize. Shootings of cops are. When a wealthy woman – part of one of the most powerful families in Belize – is found on a pier late at night, next to a body, it becomes the country’s biggest news story in a generation. New episodes every Monday!

    Start Here

    Start Here

    A straightforward look at the day's top news in 20 minutes. Powered by ABC News. Hosted by Brad Mielke.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

Explore

iHeart

Live Radio

Podcasts

Artist Radio

Exclusives

News

Features

Events

Contests

Photos

Information

About

Advertise

Blog

Brand Guidelines

Contest Guidelines

Subscription Offers

Jobs

Get the App

Automotive

Home

Mobile

Wearables

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.