“Globalization has revived tribalism. Instead of destroying local cultures, as the left predicted, it has made them stronger.” — Franklin Foer
How do Osama Bin Laden and Barron Trump explain the world? According to Franklin Foer — senior writer at The Atlantic, author of How Soccer Explains the World, reissued with a new preface for the 2026 World Cup — they’re both (or were, in the case of Bin Laden), like Foer himself, rootless Arsenal fans. The more rootless we become, the sharper our imagined identities. Thus the DC-based Foer, who showed up flaunting his Gooner gear, never misses an Arsenal game on tv, even though he grew up almost four thousand miles west of Highbury.
Foer’s 2004 classic has been reissued with a new preface in honor of the World Cup. This upcoming MAGA spectacle will only underline the tribal-global nature of the world. Trump wants to emulate Mussolini (1934) and Putin (2018) in transforming the event into a celebration of localism. Meanwhile, the expansion to 48 teams mirrors the increasingly international reality of today’s world.
And then there’s the distant but delicious possibility of an Iran-USA final. In 2022 in Qatar, the Iranian players refused to sing the national anthem to protest the killing of a young woman who wasn’t wearing a headscarf. Foer argues the national team represents an idea of Iran quite foreign from that of the theocracy. The anti-MAGA Foer wouldn’t support Iran against the USA, but argues one of the great failures of the American left has been its inability to speak the language of patriotism. So Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom should wave the flag this summer. Whose flag he doesn’t say. Probably the Arsenal if the global Foer had his tribal North London way.
Five Takeaways
• Globalization Is a Form of Tribalism. Foer’s book said it twenty years ago: globalization doesn’t dissolve tribal identity, it sharpens it. The cosmopolitan elites were themselves a tribe. Barcelona, Catalan nationalism, Cruyff, Qatar Airways — still the same symbol. Andrew’s formulation: globalization is a form of tribalism. Foer, cautiously, agrees.
• Trump’s Bread and Circuses. Three tent poles: the 250th anniversary, the Olympics, the World Cup. Every strongman has understood the distracting quality of a spectacle. Putin in 2018. Mussolini in 1934. Trump won’t be passive. The expanded tournament was a greedy error. The whole thing will unfold under the shadow of a president who wants to cosplay as president of the planet.
• The Financialization of Fandom. Fans are now conversant in the balance sheets of their clubs. There’s something sad about that. New power centres: Middle Eastern sovereign wealth (reputation laundering, soft power, fossil fuel hedging) and American private equity (arrogant belief it can do better than whoever was there before).
• Iran and the True Carriers of Civilization. The Iranian players refused to sing the anthem at the last World Cup. The team represents an idea of Iran entirely divorced from the theocracy. When Trump talks about destroying Iranian civilization, he discourages its real opponents. Foer thinks it would be genuinely good if Iran could play in this one.
• The Left’s Patriotism Failure. One of the great failures of the left: its inability to speak the language of patriotism. Even if its impulses are patriotic, it hasn’t said so. Should Kamala and Newsom wave the flag this summer? Foer says yes. Andrew would be “amused” if Iran won.
About the Guest
Franklin Foer is a senior writer at The Atlantic and the author of How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, reissued in 2026 with a new preface.
References
How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer (reissued 2026 with new preface)
About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.
Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow
Chapters:
00:00:31 The Arsenal kit, Barron Trump, and Osama bin Laden
00:01:36 How Soccer Explains the World — still right twenty years later
00:03:17 Globalization as tribalism: Barcelona and Catalan nationalism
00:04:50 Trump and the World Cup: bread, circuses, and the biggest spectacle
00:09:13 The expanded tournament, elite fans, and the death of working-class football
00:16:37 Middle Eastern sovereign wealth, American private equity, and the financialization of fandom
00:19:56 Why white American men with beards fell in love with the Premier League
00:22:28 The fake authenticity of tribal identity in a globalized world
00:29:09 Bill Buford’s thugs — where are they now?
00:30:23 Sport and justice: from Maradona’s Hand of God to the 1950 Haiti goal
00:33:11 Should America lose? Trump, Mussolini, and the patriotism question
00:36:01 Iran, the World Cup, and the true carriers of civilization
00:40:01 The left’s failure to speak patriotism: wave the flag this summer