From the Streets of San Salvador to the Page: Carlos Mojica on Writing "Goal" and Soccer's Cultural Roots

I sat down with Carlos Mojica, author of Goal, for a special edition of The Inside Scoop — part book talk, part oral history of soccer in El Salvador. Carlos walks me through discovering the game around 1996 through Ronaldo, the street soccer culture of his childhood block, and the father-son debates (Maldini vs. Baresi) that shaped his love of the game. We also get into the culture shock of moving to rural Ohio at 11, and how those experiences led him to write a book meant to help kids — and their soccer-illiterate parents — fall in love with soccer.