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Italy has six players inside the men's world top 50 including number one and four-time Grand Slam champion, Jannik Sinner.
Jasmine Paolini is flying the flag on the women's side while Sara Errani - one of the most successful doubles players in recent history - is still winning tournaments at the age of 39. The country has also won the last three Davis Cups and won the Billie Jean King Cup back-to-back in 2024 and 2025.
Delyth Lloyd is joined at Wimbledon by former player and current tournament director of the Italian Open and director of women's tennis at the Italian Tennis Federation, Paolo Lorenzi, to discuss what's behind the rise of the sport in the country. We also hear from Sinner and Paolini as well as Italian tennis journalist Ubaldo Scanagatta.
More than the Score tells stories beyond the scoreline from all over the world of sport. From the World Cup to F1, golf to figure skating, and Grand Slam tennis to Diamond League athletics. We've got interviews with extraordinary athletes like heavyweight boxing champion Fabio Wardley, Tour de France winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, trailblazing Samoan athlete Alex Rose and cricket superstar Smriti Mandhana, as well as the experts working behind the scenes, from football super-agents to the coaches keeping athletes in peak form. Plus, we've got the expertise of the BBC's top journalists, who share their insights from decades of covering sport at all levels. And if you've got your own take on the stories we cover, we'd love to hear from you. Email [email protected].uk, or WhatsApp us on 0044 800 032 0470. You can find more information, along with our privacy notice, on our website: www.bbcworldservice.com/morethanthescore
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Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo wrote himself into Olympic history earlier this year, by breaking the all-time tally for gold medals won by a Winter Olympian. But this summer, he has been dividing his time between training and travelling back and forth to the US to support Norway at the World Cup.
More than the Score’s Lee James has been speaking to the Norwegian icon ahead of his fellow countrymen’s World Cup quarter-final against England. Klaebo compares his approach to training and recovery to that of Erling Haaland, and reflects on meeting the Norway striker and his exploits at the World Cup. Klaebo says Norwegians are proud Haaland chose to represent Norway over England.
More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars, trends and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. With 48 teams competing across Mexico, the US and Canada, BBC World Service promises to take you deeper - from the group stages to the final. Search for More than the Score wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Athletes' memoirs and autobiographies are among the biggest-selling books around the world each year - but often, the words aren't entirely their own. Many sports stars work with 'ghostwriters' - professional authors who turn their stories into bestselling prose.
In November 2025, More than the Score's Lee James and John Bennett talked to Jonathan Northcroft from UK newspaper the Sunday Times, who's worked on autobiographies and memoirs with stars including former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel. How do ghostwriters help sportspeople turn their anecdotes, memories and personal stories into books, and how do they make sure their words do justice to their subject's story?
More than the Score tells stories from all over the world of sport. From Formula One to netball, MMA to figure skating, and Grand Slam tennis to Diamond League athletics. We've got interviews with extraordinary athletes, as well as the experts working behind the scenes, from football super-agents to the coaches keeping athletes in peak form. Plus, we've got the expertise of the BBC's top journalists, who share their insights from decades of covering sport at all levels.
And if you've got your own take on the stories we cover, we'd love to hear from you. Email [email protected].uk, or WhatsApp us on 0044 800 032 0470. You can find more information, along with our privacy notice, on our website: www.bbcworldservice.com/morethanthescore
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Plenty of players have made names for themselves at this World Cup, from goalkeepers like Cape Verde’s Vozinha and Paraguay’s Orlando Gill to New Zealand midfielder Elijah Just. But though they might not have been familiar to fans, the extent of modern scouting means clubs all over the world will already have known about many of them – so how have their heroics at the tournament affected their standing in the game, and their value in the transfer market? More than the Score’s Mani Djazmi speaks to Ben Littlemore from Transfermarkt, one of the world’s foremost football databases, about how transfer fees get calculated, and what effect the World Cup can have on a player’s price tag. They also discuss the curious case of Tim Payne – the New Zealand defender who became an unexpected viral sensation before the tournament, and now looks set to start a new chapter of his career in Paraguay. Mani’s also joined by Lutz Pfannenstiel, sporting director at Aberdeen, who’s played and worked all over the world in a professional career stretching back to the early 1990s. He explains how his team assesses transfer targets, and what effect major tournaments have on their thinking. More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars, trends and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. With 48 teams competing across Mexico, the US and Canada, BBC World Service promises to take you deeper - from the group stages to the final. Search for More than the Score wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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We’re at the quarter-final stage of the World Cup and four of the eight teams involved have never won football's greatest prize.
For Morocco to do so, they must first overcome two-time champions, France, in their quarter-final in Boston. Belgium face 2010 winners Spain. Erling Haaland's Norway must beat 1966 winners England to progress, while Switzerland face holders Argentina.
Former Switzerland international, Johan Djourou, won over 70 caps for his country and played at three World Cups. He explains to Lee James why his nation has a strong chance of knocking out Lionel Messi's side. North African football journalist, Maher Mezahi, discusses Morocco's chances against the pre-tournament favourites.
More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars, trends and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. With 48 teams competing across Mexico, the US and Canada, BBC World Service promises to take you deeper - from the group stages to the final. Search for More than the Score wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Lee James looks at whether co-hosting the men's Fifa World Cup will take football to another level in the United States. In many countries around the world, football is the major obsession - but the same can't be said about the US. The NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and NHL have a longer history and dominate the media coverage, the sponsorship deals and the national conversation. But has this World Cup changed that - particularly now President Trump has got involved? Lee tells the story of how soccer has made big strides in the country since it first hosted the men's World Cup in 1994. The women's team is a dominant powerhouse, and Lionel Messi's move to Inter Miami has boosted interest in the men's domestic league, the MLS. Among the people we hear from are former head of US soccer Alan Rothenberg, the USA international footballers Eric Wynalda and Heather O'Reilly, MLS vice-president Dan Courtemanche, and South Korea captain Son Heung-Min, who made the move to the MLS from the English Premier League.
More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars, trends and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. With 48 teams competing across Mexico, the US and Canada, BBC World Service promises to take you deeper - from the group stages to the final. Search for More than the Score wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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As Vancouver hosts the last of its seven games at World Cup 2026, the city now faces a battle to keep its own MLS team. The Vancouver Whitecaps are for sale and have been linked with a potential relocation to Las Vegas. The Whitecaps say they’ve held serious talks with more than 100 potential interested parties, but no viable offer has emerged that would keep the team in Vancouver. Lee James speaks to former Canada internationals David Edgar and Paul Dolan, who both have links with Vancouver, to get their take on the situation. Isaac Fanin visits the city to speak to Whitecaps fans, journalists and former players to find out how people feel about a possible relocation to Las Vegas. We also hear from MLS vice president Dan Courtemanche about the possibility of the club relocating. More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars, trends and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. With 48 teams competing across Mexico, the US and Canada, BBC World Service promises to take you deeper - from the group stages to the final. Search for More than the Score wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Norway, aided by two goals from Erling Haaland, have reached the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time with a 2-1 win over Brazil – whose wait for their sixth title will stretch to at least 28 years.
Mani Djazmi is joined by Norwegian football journalist Lars Sivertsen and South American football expert Tim Vickery to reflect on what the results mean for both countries…
Lars discusses the influence of Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland, the fact Erling Haaland wants to inspire young people to dream of playing for Norway and explains the shared football heritage of Norway and England ahead of the two sides facing each other in the last eight.
Tim derides the decision to take Neymar to the World Cup and to bring him on against Norway and says manager Carlo Ancelotti will now feel pressure around his position much greater than anything he will have experienced at Real Madrid or AC Milan.
More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars, trends and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. With 48 teams competing across Mexico, the US and Canada, BBC World Service promises to take you deeper - from the group stages to the final. Search for More than the Score wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Co-hosts Mexico have won four matches in a row at the World Cup, and are now set to face England at Mexico City’s legendary Azteca Stadium, with a place in the quarter-finals on the line.
Football is a way of life in Mexico - but did you know a group of Cornish miners helped introduce the sport to the country?
Henry Cowling has been investigating the role those miners played in Mexico's footballing story. This documentary first featured on Not By The Playbook.
More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars, trends and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. With 48 teams competing across Mexico, the US and Canada, BBC World Service promises to take you deeper - from the group stages to the final. Search for More than the Score wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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The Indian Wells tournament and the Players Championship are often unofficially referred to as the “fifth Grand Slam” and the “fifth major” of tennis and men's golf respectively. But could those nicknames ever become a reality – and who gets to confer that status on them? What makes some tournaments ‘major’, and why do they seem to matter more?
BBC golf correspondent Iain Carter talks to More than the Score’s Ade Adedoyin about how the Open, the Masters, the US Open and the US PGA came to be regarded as the four majors of the men’s game – even though other tournaments previously had that status too. What do they reveal about where power lies in the sport?
Ben Rothenberg, editor of tennis magazine Bounces, also joins the pod to explain what sets the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open apart from the rest of tennis. How much does entering their name into history still motivate golfers and tennis players today?
And if you've got your own take on the stories we cover, we'd love to hear from you. Email [email protected].uk, or WhatsApp us on 0044 800 032 0470. You can find more information, along with our privacy notice, on our website: www.bbcworldservice.com/morethanthescore
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Philadelphia may not have hosted an opening ceremony, and it won’t be the venue for the final, but the city certainly seems to have been one of the big winners of the World Cup.
Philadelphia Stadium – AKA Lincoln Financial Field, home of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles - has been full for games involving the likes of Brazil, France and Ivory Coast. In the first two weeks of the tournament, 250,000 people had been through the gates to watch games on big screens at the fan park.
Lee James and John Bennett examine the fan experience in the city, with John visiting a tailgate before the Brazil v Haiti game, chatting to fans and sampling the food on offer. Lee then visits all four of the main US sports teams in the city - the Eagles, Phillies, 76ers and Flyers - to learn more about Philadelphia’s sporting heritage.
He also hears from Meg Kane, the host city executive for Philadelphia Soccer 2026, about why the city wanted to host games and what benefits it brings.
More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars, trends and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. With 48 teams competing across Mexico, the US and Canada, BBC World Service promises to take you deeper - from the group stages to the final. Search for More than the Score wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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The United States have reached the round of 16 at their home World Cup just as they did the last time they hosted the competition in 1994. The USA did so by beating Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 in Santa Clara. More than the Score's Lee James discusses this year's run with Kerith Gabriel, sports editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Lee also reflects on the World Cup 32 years ago with those involved in the big moments, including the scorer of the USA's first goal Eric Wynalda, Sunday Oliseh from debutants Nigeria and the Republic of Ireland's goalscorer Ray Houghton. We also hear from the man who ran the show, the former head of US Soccer and the organising committee, Alan Rothenberg. He reveals how they turned a sceptical public and football world around to produce what became the highest attended and most lucrative World Cup. This is a tale of two missed penalties and so much that happened in-between, as World Cup 94 became the American dream.
More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars, trends and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. With 48 teams competing across Mexico, the US and Canada, BBC World Service promises to take you deeper - from the group stages to the final. Search for More than the Score wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Cape Verde, in their debut World Cup, have already drawn with Spain and Uruguay and now they’re set for their biggest test yet, Lionel Messi's defending champions Argentina.
Playing ahead of their now famous 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha, is Sidny Lopes Cabral, a defender who’s one of several Dutch-born players in a squad that has been taken liberally from the Cape Verdean diaspora.
He explains to Mani Djazmi his excitement ahead of facing Argentina and says they’re taking inspiration from Paraguay’s shock win over Germany.
More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars, trends and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. With 48 teams competing across Mexico, the US and Canada, BBC World Service promises to take you deeper - from the group stages to the final. Search for More than the Score wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Mani Djazmi is joined by German football expert Constantin Eckner and the BBC’s tactics correspondent Umir Irfan to reflect on Germany’s shock defeat against Paraguay at the World Cup.
The 2014 world champions haven’t won a knockout game at a World Cup since they lifted the trophy in Brazil, and heading into the Paraguay game they had never lost a World Cup penalty shootout. We discuss what went wrong for Germany, and what their defeat means for the future of manager Julian Nagelsmann.
We also hear from jubilant Paraguay fans and discuss how did Gustavo Alfaro's men pull off the biggest shock of the knockout stages so far?
More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. Search for More than the Score, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Lee James is joined by African football commentator Mark Gleeson, South American football expert Tim Vickery and Daniel Storey, chief football writer for the i Newspaper, to assess whether the biggest World Cup has been a success.
They discuss whether the tournament has lacked jeopardy, what has led to nine African teams reaching the knockout stage and whether the World Cup will now expand again to 64 teams.
Tim believes the rise of Africa could make life more difficult in the coming years for some South American nations and that questions will be asked about whether Asia deserves so many places, given their relative under-performance in 2026.
More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. Search for More than the Score, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Back in January, Naomi Osaka turned heads at tennis's Australian Open when she took to the court for her first-round match wearing a long, flowing outfit - accompanied by a custom hat and parasol - inspired by reading her daughter a story about jellyfish. Created with sports brand Nike and designer Robert Wun, it further cemented four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka's reputation as one of sport's most fashion-conscious stars.
Earlier this year, More than the Score's Sophia Hartley spoke to two industry experts about how sport and fashion influence each other, and whether they're becoming even more closely linked.
Sheena Butler-Young is a senior correspondent for fashion industry news site The Business of Fashion. She believes the two industries have never been more aligned.
Melissa Anglesea is the creative director of Suzi Wong, the British sportswear company who've created custom outfits for many of boxing's biggest names, including Tyson Fury and Amir Khan. She explains how the creative process works when collaborating with the world's best fighters.
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Canada’s Christine Sinclair is the all-time record goal scorer in international football, with 190 goals. She played in a Women’s World Cup on home soil in 2015 and was part of the team, which won Olympic gold in 2021.
Sinclair joins the BBC’s Lee James to discuss the impact co-hosting the men’s World Cup is having on the sport in Canada. She believes the nation has caught football fever and the long-term benefits will be felt 15 years from now as more children grow into playing the sport. Sinclair also gives us an insight into what it is like playing in a home World Cup, reflects on her storied career and chats about the new animated film about her life, which is narrated by Ryan Reynolds.
All this summer, More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. Search for More than the Score, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Curacao goalkeeper, Eloy Room, made 15 saves in his side's goalless draw with Ecuador - a new record for a keeper who kept a clean sheet in a 90-minute match at the World Cup. Remarkably, his performance came just days after conceding seven to Germany in their opening match of the tournament. The 37-year-old tells Mani Djazmi how he, and the team, recovered from that loss and why his display in Kansas was perfect for a goalkeeper.
All this summer, More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. Search for More than the Score, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Lee James is in Toronto to find out how soccer is gripping Canada, with the men’s team winning their first ever World Cup match and on the brink of reaching the knock-out stages.
Soccer is now the highest participation sport in the country according to Canada Soccer and there are almost one million registered players, in 1,200 clubs across Canada. The sport has surpassed Ice hockey and all other sports in terms of youth participation, according to a recent report by Jumpstart, a Canadian charity.
So is this reflected across Canadian society - are young children now kicking footballs rather than strapping on skates?
Lee speaks to Canada international Jonathan Osorio, former Toronto FC goalkeeping coach Jon Conway, broadcaster Andi Petrillo and Ice Hockey fans to find out if Canada is a soccer nation now?
All this summer, More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. Search for More than the Score, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Lionel Messi is now the World Cup's all-time leading scorer, after getting two goals for Argentina against Austria - two days before his 39th birthday. Messi's tally now stands at 18 goals, but what is the secret behind his longevity - and can he now be called the greatest footballer ever?
The BBC’s Mani Djazmi is joined by South American football expert Tim Vickery, who analyses how Messi has adapted his game over the past two decades to remain among the world's greatest players. Tim also considers how Argentina's team functions without Messi - and explains why Argentinians see him in a different light to the country's other football icon, Diego Maradona.
We also hear from former Argentina forward Hernan Crespo, who says he knew Messi was special from the moment he first saw him. He also discusses his ongoing importance to the side and assesses their chances of winning World Cup 2026.
All this summer, More than the Score brings you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. Search for More than the Score, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
- Visa fler
