More than the Score

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 Wor...

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...

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 sta...

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...

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 Wor...

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 speak...

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 in...

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 footballin...

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...

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 p...

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...

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 t...

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 w...

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 t...

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 m...

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 l...

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 Ka...

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 s...

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 ada...

The New York-New Jersey Stadium - usually known as the MetLife Stadium - will host this year's World Cup final on 19 July. It's best known as the home of the NFL's two New York teams, the Giants and the Jets, and concerns have been raised about its suitability for football's biggest game. France and Arsenal defender William Saliba is among the critics - he said the pitch "wasn't great" and "more l...

When Ellie Bouttell was 15, she moved from England to live with her dad in Beijing. The decision shaped her life in ways she could never have imagined. Back in January, Ellie spoke to More than the Score's Ade Adedoyin about how she went from a "difficult" adolescence in the English Midlands to graduating from the University of Cambridge, before taking her most unexpected step: becoming a professi...

Haiti's second game at World Cup 2026 sees them face the tournament's most famous team: Brazil. After losing their opening match to Scotland, Haiti need a result - but, as More than the Score's Mani Djazmi hears, plenty of Haitians might be rooting for Brazil instead. Journalist Pierre Richard Midy explains how the history of football in Haiti is intertwined with the Brazilian team – to the extent...

Fifa has introduced mandatory hydration breaks for this World Cup, essentially splitting the games into four quarters. The mandatory three-minute drinks stoppage at all 104 games has been introduced to help players cope with the stifling heat and humidity levels in Mexico, Canada and the United States. It has been criticised for allowing coaches to make tactical changes while broadcasters can - an...

South Korea's Son Heung-min is an icon and the captain of his national team, with the former Tottenham Hotspur forward holding the record for the most goals by an Asian player in both Premier League and UEFA Champions League history. Son tells Lee James it’s “crazy” and a “dream come true” to be playing in a fourth World Cup and is hoping the team can inspire the next generation. He also reflects...

Senegal and Morocco are widely viewed as Africa’s strongest sides at this World Cup. The BBC’s Isaac Fanin is in Los Angeles, while Lee James and John Bennett are in New York; they reflect on being at Morocco’s opening game against Brazil, and on the recent Afcon final between the two sides. Isaac has also spoken at length to Senegal and Everton midfielder Iliman Ndiaye, who tells him the team “ne...