Six months ago I started a daily podcast about soccer history.
178 episodes later, every single day, one story from The Beautiful Game’s past — and today, OTD: Your Daily Dose of Soccer History also has a home on Substack.
Why?
Because not everyone wants to listen daily.
Some of you want to read. Some of you want a Sunday digest. Some of you stumbled on one episode you loved and want a way to find more without scrolling through Spotify.
Substack is for you.
Here’s what you’ll get from this newsletter:
→ A short daily post — the day’s episode, written up, with the audio embedded
→ A Sunday digest of the week’s seven stories
→ Occasional bonus posts when something in soccer right now has a great historical parallel
If you’d rather just listen, the podcast is still on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, iHeart, and YouTube. Nothing changes there.
A few stories from the first six months
If you’re new and want to know what kind of show this is, here are five episodes that are a fair sample:
The night European football was born. A muddy December evening in 1954: Wolves came back from 0-2 to beat Hungarian champions Honvéd 3-2 under brand-new floodlights at Molineux. The Daily Mail called Wolves “Champions of the World.” A French journalist read that headline, fumed, and within a year had launched the European Cup. (Episode 43, 13 December 2025)
The GOAT you’ve never heard of. Paulino Alcántara was 15 years old when he debuted for Barcelona in 1912 and scored a hat-trick. They called him “El Rompe Redes” — the netbreaker — because he hit the ball hard enough to tear through the goal nets. His Barcelona scoring record stood for almost a century. Until Messi caught him. (Episode 117, 25 February 2026)
The night BBC commentary became fiction. New Year’s Day, 1940. Hibs vs Hearts at Easter Road, played in fog so thick the players couldn’t see each other. The match was on the radio for servicemen overseas — but Britain was at war and weather was intelligence. So commentator Rex Kingsley was told to talk as if it were a clear, sunny day. The match he described had nothing to do with the match being played. The real one ended Hibs 5, Hearts 6. (Episode 62, 1 January 2026)
A perfect season in wartime South America. While most of the world was at war in 1941, Uruguay played football. On 14 December at the Estadio Centenario, Nacional beat their eternal rivals Peñarol 6-0 to finish the league season with 20 wins from 20. The reserves had won 4-0 earlier the same day. Nacional fans still call it El Día del 10 a 0. (Episode 44, 14 December 2025)
The Battle of Highbury. November 1934. England, in self-imposed exile from FIFA, took on Mussolini’s reigning world champions in a “friendly” at Highbury. Seven of the eleven England players were Arsenal men. Italy’s Luis Monti broke his foot in the second minute. Three players had broken bones by full-time. England won 3-2. The newspapers immediately called it the Battle of Highbury — and the FA almost cancelled future internationals over the brutality. (Episode 14, 14 November 2025)
A note on listener ideas
Several of the best episodes have come from listeners. A friend urged me to tell the story of the first Peruvian club to win a continental trophy. A friend in Edinburgh suggested the Fog Derby. A friend in Guayaquil told me the story of a Basque priest who scored a famous goal in La Plata. If you have an idea — a moment, a match, a strange anniversary — hit reply or send it to otd@17lawsguy.com.
Today’s episode is up shortly — number 178, about the saddest backheel in Manchester derby history. The first daily Substack post lands tomorrow.
See you then.
— 17 Laws Guy