One of the longest-running sports websites is set for a major change. That would be World Soccer Talk, which founder and managing editor Christopher Harris is leaving after 20 years running the site.
Harris sold the site to Playmaker Capital in 2022 but stayed on to transition it to the new owners. In a farewell post Monday, he wrote, “My mission is complete, and they’ll continue running the site.”
I’m no longer in charge of running World Soccer Talk, but this isn’t a goodbye.
After selling World Soccer Talk in 2022 and transitioning the site to the new owners, I’ve accepted a position at a different company.
WST will continue without me. Thank you everyone. Cheers! pic.twitter.com/tEq9AkIa6k
— Christopher Harris (@thegaffer) March 3, 2025
In that farewell post, Harris writes that he’s taken a new role at a marketing company in a different industry. He also has a look back at some of the accomplishments World Soccer Talk (and its predecessor, EPL Talk) had over his 20 years there:
Looking back, I have so many wonderful memories to reflect upon. One of my proudest accomplishments was to take what started as a blog (EPL Talk) written in my bedroom on nights and weekends and to transform it into World Soccer Talk, which grew to rank in the top five English-language soccer websites in the United States. At its height, World Soccer Talk generated more traffic than FIFA.com, MLSsoccer.com, PremierLeague.com, and RealMadrid.com.
Along the way, we broke so many exclusive stories, which was an incredible achievement for me and my team since we were an independent publisher. At our height, we had five full-time employees and a team of 15-20 freelance writers worldwide. Managing that team was one of my proudest achievements, and building the site into a profitable, debt-free company was something I was very proud of especially when so many competing websites crashed and burned.
World Soccer Talk means different things to different people. Some remember us as one of the OG soccer podcasts. After launching the pod in 2005, we had an incredible run of 20 years where the show took on many different forms. An interview podcast that included conversations with some of the biggest names in the sport. A preview/review of weekend games. And then finally, a TV/streaming industry podcast that caught listeners up on the latest ways to watch games, as well as a deep dive into many of the biggest stories from the world of soccer.
Over the years, we published books (remember, SoccerWarz), an EPL Talk Magazine, soccer T-shirts, the Soccer TV Schedules app, a daily email newsletter (WST Insider), documentaries, and how-to-watch guides, among many other things.
From day one, my goal was to help grow the game of soccer in the United States. Our focus in later years on making our TV schedules as accessible as possible helped a great deal with that, to make it easier for people to find out where to watch games especially when there were so many confusing options.
Harris also discussed that exit in a podcast with co-host Kartik Krishnaiyer, looking back at the history of the site’s podcast from 2006-present, and announcing that this would be the final episode of it in its current form:
As noted here around that sale in 2022, the WST acquisition from Playmaker Capital (a Toronto-based firm then known for ownership of Yardbarker, The Nation Network, Two Up, and FutbolSites, and a firm that itself was acquired by Better Collective in 2023) significantly boosted that company’s already-large collection of soccer-focused sites. WST has remained a key part of their portfolio; it’s continued to be an important soccer read, and Harris has been a big part of that with podcasting, writing, interviews, and more.
Under Playmaker ownership thus far, WST has continued publishing TV and streaming listings and a significant quantity of news and opinion pieces. They had 16 pieces in those categories Sunday alone, ranging from “Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney urgently address Wrexham fans after losing millions” to “IFAB introduces game-changing rule targeting time-wasting goalkeepers for 2025-26 season” to “The secret meaning behind Fenerbahce’s fee to Galatasaray following Jose Mourinho’s accusations.” But the most opinionated piece Sunday, “Soccer fans in U.S. desperately want promotion and relegation,” came from Harris, and fit with one of his long-time featured topics.
It will be interesting to see where WST goes in its post-Harris era.