Ep 29 | FTP at WC22: Group G - Brasil, Switzerland, Serbia, Cameroon

If you’ve attended or watched a major international soccer tournament recently, you’ve probably noticed an increasing prevalence of on-field and in-seat match hosts (and Coldplay), getting the crowd hyped for the game during the pre-game and half-time periods. In today’s episode, we’re joined, not simply by ‘one of these in-game hosts’, but perhaps by one of the most dynamic, positive-vibe energetic hosts out there right now - Najjah Calibur.

This is Part 2 of our conversation w/ this incredible international match host, and amazing international footy traveler. If you missed Part 1, we recommend starting with that, just ahead of this one in our feed. 

Foot(y)notes:

• Explore more of what Najjah and his entertainment crew do by checking out the Live Engine website.

• If you're curious about Najjah's own footy content project, check out FootyScoopsInDa6ix.
  
  
• His match host partner, Dancin' Wayne is a trip too!
  
  
• Get ready for your footy travel adventure in Toronto.

*RATE & REVIEW*

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*VISIT THE FOOTY TRAVELERS FAN SHOP*

Head to our new fan shop to cop an exclusive Footy Travelers 'Away' jersey, or score a custom-designed supporters' scarf. Hurry though! Jerseys are nearly sold out and scarf supplies won't last long!

*SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS*

Race2Adventure

From the stunning scenery of Chile to the captivating allure of New Zealand – R2A invites you to join them on an exhilarating vacation around the world. Their 8-night adventures are tailor-made for fitness enthusiasts, explorers, and travel aficionados who crave more from their vacations. With R2A, you don’t just visit a destination; you become a part of it.

If you’ve attended or watched a major international soccer tournament recently, you’ve probably noticed an increasing prevalence of on-field and in-seat match hosts (and Coldplay), getting the crowd hyped for the game during the pre-game and half-time periods. In today’s episode, we’re joined, not simply by ‘one of these in-game hosts’, but perhaps by one of the most dynamic, positive-vibe energetic hosts out there right now - Najjah Calibur. A self-described ‘Spice Man’ from Grenada, living in Toronto, Najjah has hosted matches at both Men’s and Women’s World Cups, CONCACAF Gold Cups, and most recently at January and February’s Asian Cup in Qatar.

We discuss how someone becomes a match host in the first place, what it’s like to have fans turn on you, getting to see legends like Ronaldo and Zidane up close and personal, and what the scene is like in Qatar post-World Cup 2022. 

Not only is Najjah full of incredible, positive energy, he’s full of amazing, well-traveled insights and stories. So many in fact, that this conversation deserves to be delivered in full in a 2-part series ("Put some respect on it!" - Najjah). And so, this is Part 1 of our conversation w/ this incredible international match host, and amazing international footy traveler.

Foot(y)notes:

• If you or someone you know is struggling in their relationship with alcohol, you can call 1-800-662-4357 for confidential free help, or visit findtreatment.gov to find substance use treatment and information near you.

• Explore more of what Najjah and his entertainment crew do by checking out the Live Engine website.

• Check out the song Najjah almost sang live at the 2022 World Cup Final.

• As we asked Najjah, over one year after the 2022 World Cup, what has changed in Qatar?

• What the heck is Colin referring to with his 'Lindsay Horan' comment? This.

*RATE & REVIEW*

Wherever you're listening, be sure to hit 'Follow' or 'Subscribe', leave us a star-rating, and if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, leave us a proper review to let others know what you think of the show!

*VISIT THE FOOTY TRAVELERS FAN SHOP*

Head to our new fan shop to cop an exclusive Footy Travelers 'Away' jersey, or score a custom-designed supporters' scarf. Hurry though! Jerseys are nearly sold out and scarf supplies won't last long!

*SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS*

Race2Adventure

From the stunning scenery of Chile to the captivating allure of New Zealand – R2A invites you to join them on an exhilarating vacation around the world. Their 8-night adventures are tailor-made for fitness enthusiasts, explorers, and travel aficionados who crave more from their vacations. With R2A, you don’t just visit a destination; you become a part of it.

We're back with a debrief from Danny Navarro (@TravelFutbolFan; D.C. area) and Matt Marshall (@EatPrayBall; Los Angeles) following the CONMEBOL pre-sale window that opened on Thursday, February 22. Danny and Matt react to their experiences logging in and hunting for tickets, and share what to expect once tickets open up to the general public on February 28th. Colin also walks through his process and shares tips for getting to the front of the ticketing queue. If you want Copa tickets, you want to listen to this episode!

Foot(y)notes:

• Visit the official ticket page of the Copa America for all the precise details about ticket sales and presale windows.
  
  
• Here's the official match schedule for Copa.
  
  
• This is the article that helped us figure out where to buy Copa tickets once they're released.
  
  
• And this one confirms everything we know so far.

*RATE & REVIEW*

Wherever you're listening, be sure to hit 'Follow' or 'Subscribe', leave us a star-rating, and if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, leave us a proper review to let others know what you think of the show!

*VISIT THE FOOTY TRAVELERS FAN SHOP*

Head to our new fan shop to cop an exclusive Footy Travelers 'Away' jersey, or score a custom-designed supporters' scarf. Hurry though! Jerseys are nearly sold out and scarf supplies won't last long!

*SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS*

Race2Adventure

From the stunning scenery of Chile to the captivating allure of New Zealand – R2A invites you to join them on an exhilarating vacation around the world. Their 8-night adventures are tailor-made for fitness enthusiasts, explorers, and travel aficionados who crave more from their vacations. With R2A, you don’t just visit a destination; you become a part of it.

FINALLY! CONMEBOL has announced the release date for tickets to Copa America 2024 games. And it's... still "later" (February 28 to be exact). But hey, at least it's within the same calendar month that we're releasing this episode on it all! In this Footy Travelers "Need to Know NTK)" episode, we go coast to coast with FFT guests in Danny Navarro (@TravelFutbolFan; D.C. area) and Matt Marshall (@EatPrayBall; Los Angeles) to discuss where to get official Copa tickets, which platforms each host stadium is selling tickets on, and some awesome ideas for how to maximize attending both the Copa America and the Euro 2024 tournaments.

Foot(y)notes:

• Visit the official ticket page of the Copa America for all the precise details, and info on all the different presales (enough to make you dizzy!).
  
  
• Here's the official match schedule for Copa, and here's the one for the Euros.
  
  
• Keep an eye on the Euro website for details on the resale platform opening up later in March (or so we're told).
  
  
• This is the article that helped us figure out where to buy Copa tickets once they're released.
  
  
• And this one confirms everything we know so far.

*RATE & REVIEW*

Wherever you're listening, be sure to hit 'Follow' or 'Subscribe', leave us a star-rating, and if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, leave us a proper review to let others know what you think of the show!

*VISIT THE FOOTY TRAVELERS FAN SHOP*

Head to our new fan shop to cop an exclusive Footy Travelers 'Away' jersey, or score a custom-designed supporters' scarf. Hurry though! Jerseys are nearly sold out and scarf supplies won't last long!

*SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS*

Race2Adventure

From the stunning scenery of Chile to the captivating allure of New Zealand – R2A invites you to join them on an exhilarating vacation around the world. Their 8-night adventures are tailor-made for fitness enthusiasts, explorers, and travel aficionados who crave more from their vacations. With R2A, you don’t just visit a destination; you become a part of it.

If you don't remember getting the Eurosport catalog in the mail as a kid, we hope you're spending your youth wisely (Stretch more, drink less by the way. You're welcome!). We also invite you to look up the history of Soccer.com. If you do remember that precious piece of periodical product propoganda, we're sure you never thought it could catalyze true, deep and commited love... to another soccer fan. Except that in the case of our guests today, it did. In this, our (first annual?) Valentine's Day Special (because why not?), we bring you Sylvia & Jason Donovan, two FFTs who without the (Euro)sport of soccer, likely never would have met otherwise, let alone found themselves married, with 3 children, after having fought their way through Sylvia's cancer treatment within the first several months of dating. It's a footy traveler's love story for the ages!

Foot(y)notes:

• As we all know, Eurosport is now Soccer.com - not a sponsor, but maybe wants to be?! Eurosport just celebrated it's 40th birthday last month. Dang we feel old!
  
  
• If you know nothing about Annapolis Blues FC or the NPSL, well... now you do!
  
  
• If you were touched by Sylvia's (and Jason's) story, and want to support a community for young adults, and their loved ones, impacted by cancer, considering supporting the Ulman Foundation.
  
  
• You can also help make soccer dreams come true for kids and young adults fighting cancer and other critical illnesses by supporting the Craig Willinger Fund.

*RATE & REVIEW*

Wherever you're listening, be sure to hit 'Follow' or 'Subscribe', leave us a star-rating, and if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, leave us a proper review to let others know what you think of the show!

*VISIT THE FOOTY TRAVELERS FAN SHOP*

Head to our new fan shop to cop an exclusive Footy Travelers 'Away' jersey, or score a custom-designed supporters' scarf. Hurry though! Jerseys are nearly sold out and scarf supplies won't last long!

*SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS*

Race2Adventure

From the stunning scenery of Chile to the captivating allure of New Zealand – R2A invites you to join them on an exhilarating vacation around the world. Their 8-night adventures are tailor-made for fitness enthusiasts, explorers, and travel aficionados who crave more from their vacations. With R2A, you don’t just visit a destination; you become a part of it.

** NEW EPISODE next week**

As we reset and record new episodes coming later this spring, we’re bringing you episodes of other soccer- or travel-related podcasts that we think you’ll enjoy - and this week’s presentation is a great one! It’s an episode from “Everything Everywhere Daily”, a daily podcast that covers absolutely anything, and everything. Today, the Footy Travelers Podcast presents Everything Everywhere Daily’s episode: The Football War (El Salvador vs. Honduras).

If you like what you hear from Everything Everywhere Daily:

• Subscribe to their Apple Podcasts feed, or...
• to their Spotify feed, or...
• check out their website for other ways to subscribe & listen

*RATE & REVIEW*

Wherever you're listening, be sure to hit 'Follow' or 'Subscribe', leave us a star-rating, and if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, leave us a proper review to let others know what you think of the show!

*VISIT THE FOOTY TRAVELERS FAN SHOP*

Head to our new fan shop to cop an exclusive Footy Travelers 'Away' jersey, or score a custom-designed supporters' scarf. Hurry though! Jerseys are nearly sold out and scarf supplies won't last long!

*SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS*

Race2Adventure

From the stunning scenery of Chile to the captivating allure of New Zealand – R2A invites you to join them on an exhilarating vacation around the world. Their 8-night adventures are tailor-made for fitness enthusiasts, explorers, and travel aficionados who crave more from their vacations. With R2A, you don’t just visit a destination; you become a part of it.

In this week's winter episode presentation, we're sharing ESPN Missoula's show "Soccer in Snow & Smoke", hosted by Andrew Houghton - specifially, the episode we joined as guests during our trip to Australia & New Zealand for the 2023 Women's World Cup.

As Andrew describes this episode: "Colin and Mike are two friends and former college teammates who have combined their passions to create The Footy Travelers, a podcast all about soccer and traveling the world. Live from Australia, they were kind enough to join me on Soccer In Snow & Smoke to talk all about their travel experiences at this year's Women's World Cup, an odyssey that includes tales of hiking and surfing, hunting wild pigs, sampling local cuisine, providing an alpine rescue and being in the stadium for the USWNT's shocking shootout loss to Sweden."

Check out more episodes of Soccer in Snow & Smoke on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

And be sure to catch "Trailblazers," the narrative offshoot of Soccer In Snow & Smoke, all about the 1994 Montana women's soccer team.

*RATE & REVIEW*

Wherever you're listening, be sure to hit 'Follow' or 'Subscribe, leave us a star-rating, and if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, leave us a proper review to let others know what you think of the show!

*VISIT THE FOOTY TRAVELERS FAN SHOP*

Head to our new fan shop to cop an exclusive Footy Travelers 'Away' jersey, or score a custom-designed supporters' scarf. Hurry though! Jerseys are nearly sold out and scarf supplies won't last long!

*SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS*

Race2Adventure

From the stunning scenery of Chile to the captivating allure of New Zealand – R2A invites you to join them on an exhilarating vacation around the world. Their 8-night adventures are tailor-made for fitness enthusiasts, explorers, and travel aficionados who crave more from their vacations. With R2A, you don’t just visit a destination; you become a part of it.

Technically, FTP is on a production break, but we don’t want you, our loyal listener, to go without great footy travel content, so we’re bringing you episodes of other footy, travel, or footy-travel podcasts we think you’ll enjoy. And we’re starting with something very special… 

…the entire 1st season of Counterspective.

Counterspective is another Fyper Media podcast, and Season 1 was the precursor to the Footy Travelers Podcast. It was released in the summer of 2019, a year after Mike and Colin's third World Cup: Russia 2018. As you’ll quickly learn, it goes well-beyond the in-stadium experiences they had, beyond the footy - although one of the episodes is focused on that topic specifically - and it dives deep into the details and nuances of traveling in a country most of us wouldn’t dare to visit at the present moment. As the now monikered Footy Travelers met new people, tried new food, and tested their really poor Russian language skills, they explored Ruski culture through that footy travelers lens.

This is Episode 5: Russia Beyond the World Cup - Art, Architecture, and Rap

Foot(y)notes:

• Here's that rap battle between Oxxxymiron (RUS) and Dizaster (USA) this episode mentions

*RATE & REVIEW*

Wherever you're listening, be sure to hit 'Follow' or 'Subscribe, leave us a star-rating, and if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, leave us a proper review to let others know what you think of the show!

*VISIT THE FOOTY TRAVELERS FAN SHOP*

Head to our new fan shop to cop an exclusive Footy Travelers 'Away' jersey, or score a custom-designed supporters' scarf. Hurry though! Quantities are limited and supplies won't last long!

*SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS*

Race2Adventure

From the stunning scenery of Chile to the captivating allure of New Zealand – R2A invites you to join them on an exhilarating vacation around the world. Their 8-night adventures are tailor-made for fitness enthusiasts, explorers, and travel aficionados who crave more from their vacations. With R2A, you don’t just visit a destination; you become a part of it.

Technically, FTP is on a production break, but we don’t want you, our loyal listener, to go without great footy travel content, so we’re bringing you episodes of other footy, travel, or footy-travel podcasts we think you’ll enjoy. And we’re starting with something very special… 

…the entire 1st season of Counterspective.

Counterspective is another Fyper Media podcast, and Season 1 was the precursor to the Footy Travelers Podcast. It was released in the summer of 2019, a year after Mike and Colin's third World Cup: Russia 2018. As you’ll quickly learn, it goes well-beyond the in-stadium experiences they had, beyond the footy - although one of the episodes is focused on that topic specifically - and it dives deep into the details and nuances of traveling in a country most of us wouldn’t dare to visit at the present moment. As the now monikered Footy Travelers met new people, tried new food, and tested their really poor Russian language skills, they explored Ruski culture through that footy travelers lens.

This is Episode 4: Georgia on My...Plate?

Foot(y)notes:

• For anyone brave enough to try making their own khachapuri, here's a recipe.
  
  

*RATE & REVIEW*

Wherever you're listening, be sure to hit 'Follow' or 'Subscribe, leave us a star-rating, and if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, leave us a proper review to let others know what you think of the show!

*VISIT THE FOOTY TRAVELERS FAN SHOP*

Head to our new fan shop to cop an exclusive Footy Travelers 'Away' jersey, or score a custom-designed supporters' scarf. Hurry though! Quantities are limited and supplies won't last long!

*SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS*

Race2Adventure

From the stunning scenery of Chile to the captivating allure of New Zealand – R2A invites you to join them on an exhilarating vacation around the world. Their 8-night adventures are tailor-made for fitness enthusiasts, explorers, and travel aficionados who crave more from their vacations. With R2A, you don’t just visit a destination; you become a part of it.

Technically, FTP is on a production break, but we don’t want you, our loyal listener, to go without great footy travel content, so we’re bringing you episodes of other footy, travel, or footy-travel podcasts we think you’ll enjoy. And we’re starting with something very special… 

…the entire 1st season of Counterspective.

Counterspective is another Fyper Media podcast, and Season 1 was the precursor to the Footy Travelers Podcast. It was released in the summer of 2019, a year after Mike and Colin's third World Cup: Russia 2018. As you’ll quickly learn, it goes well-beyond the in-stadium experiences they had, beyond the footy - although one of the episodes is focused on that topic specifically - and it dives deep into the details and nuances of traveling in a country most of us wouldn’t dare to visit at the present moment. As the now monikered Footy Travelers met new people, tried new food, and tested their really poor Russian language skills, they explored Ruski culture through that footy travelers lens.

This is Episode 3: Vodka Breakfast.

Foot(y)notes:

• Anyone looking for great craft beer in St Petersburg, Russia, head to Bakunin Brewery
  
  
• This is where you can find their new (since 2018) beer cafe & boutique
  
  

*RATE & REVIEW*

Wherever you're listening, be sure to hit 'Follow' or 'Subscribe, leave us a star-rating, and if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, leave us a proper review to let others know what you think of the show!

*VISIT THE FOOTY TRAVELERS FAN SHOP*

Head to our new fan shop to cop an exclusive Footy Travelers 'Away' jersey, or score a custom-designed supporters' scarf. Hurry though! Quantities are limited and supplies won't last long!

*SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS*

Race2Adventure

From the stunning scenery of Chile to the captivating allure of New Zealand – R2A invites you to join them on an exhilarating vacation around the world. Their 8-night adventures are tailor-made for fitness enthusiasts, explorers, and travel aficionados who crave more from their vacations. With R2A, you don’t just visit a destination; you become a part of it.