From Minas Gerais, Cruzeiro fan, IR student. And a thesis.

My name is Tales Matta. I'm from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, a Cruzeiro supporter (don't judge me), and I study International Relations at FGV.

My education happened in two places at once: the classroom and the bar table. One day it clicked that they were the same class. When the topic was a club's owner, a World Cup hosted in the desert, a player switching national teams, that was already International Relations, just without the credentials.

It became a thesis: football is the most honest way to understand the world. In class I learn the concept. In the stadium, I watch it work. Soft power, sanctions, diaspora, sovereign wealth funds: you already use these ideas every time you argue about football, nobody ever told you their names.

An example I like to give: in almost everything IR textbooks measure (GDP, military strength, technology), Brazil and South America play from behind. On the pitch, the math flips. Here, the periphery becomes the center. Maybe that's why we read this game so well.

That's the engine behind this project: take the world's news and read it through football's lens. You've already seen the goal somewhere. Here I show you what was actually at stake behind it.

Quick credentials

• International Relations student, FGV
• Creator of Quem Tava Lá (football quiz app)
• Author of the Soft Power Observatory and the Football × IR Radar