soccer

stadium

New Kings and Queens soccer leagues enlist internet stars to revamp sport

Sports

The game is loosely based on soccer, but immersed in video game culture and reality TV antics. In Barcelona, Spain, the second season of the Kings League kicks off the first weekend of May alongside the first season of the Queens League. This summer, the Prince Cup will launch for kids ages 9 to 11.

Some of the younger boys of newly arrived Afghan refugees play in their own game at a St. Louis sports facility. The weekly get-together is a chance to exercise and make new friends.

Amid chaos, young Afghan refugees find something familiar in St. Louis — soccer

Refugees
Followers of Muqtada al-Sadr celebrate holding his posters, after the announcement of the results of the parliamentary elections in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, Iraq

Moqtada al-Sadr wins Iraq election

Top of The World
Girls on the Genesis Youth Foundation soccer team show off their skills with the ball at their practice in Des Moines.

Not all youth soccer players have the same opportunities. These Iowa clubs try to shrink that gap.

Sports
England's Jadon Sancho is shown on the soccer pitch holding his hands to his face.

Police investigate racist abuse of three England players

Sports
Women run on a soccer field

In Spain after lockdown, soccer resumes for men — but not for women

Sports

Women’s soccer will not return this season — despite making historic strides toward equity with a collective bargaining agreement signed in February.

An action shot of a woman playing soccer

Women’s pro soccer made gains toward parity. Will coronavirus undo it?

Sports

As women’s soccer was drawing more and more fans, the players were stepping up their fight against gender discrimination in the sport. But just a year later, the game’s visibility — and its journey toward equity — has been stopped in its tracks.

Gaelle Dule Asheri is shown standing with one foot on a soccer ball and wearing an orange uniform.

Cameroonian girls defy prejudice to pursue soccer dreams

Sports

The Women’s World Cup is putting a spotlight on the growing global interest in women’s soccer. So in a country where many still see soccer as a man’s game, there’s a glimmer of hope as a first wave of girls in Cameroon are now being trained by professional coaches at an academy in Yaounde.

A manis shown with a briefcase walking past a billboard showing members of the French Women's World Cup soccer team hugging.

Women’s World Cup kicks off in France, but you’d barely know it in Paris

Sports

The Women’s World Cup kicks off on Friday as hosts France take on South Korea. But if you were strolling the streets of Paris, you would be forgiven for not knowing it was happening.

french soccer players at the world cup

French national soccer players of immigrant ancestry face harsher critics at the World Cup

Sports

The synergy that has propelled the French national team to the title game in the most recent World Cup in Russia has been colorblind — but French citizens and fans have not.