KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.
—
The late Grant Wahl was born in Kansas City and rose to global prominence as one of the most important U.S. soccer journalists in history — a fact that’s still hard for his brother, Eric Wahl, to fathom.
“Growing up, he was my little brother, four years younger, and, you know, we behaved the way brothers do,” Eric Wahl said Tuesday from his home in Kansas City, Missouri. “We would roll around and punch each other and stuff.”
Wahl, a Shawnee Mission East graduate who grew up in Mission, played soccer as a kid, but it was far from certain that he’d become a seminal voice in U.S. soccer.
RELATED | Reflecting on Grant Wahl's contributions
“In high school, even though we had a soccer team at Shawnee Mission East, he was far more into cross country and basketball,” Eric Wahl said.
In fact, Grant Wahl’s love of soccer didn’t crystallize until a study-abroad opportunity in Argentina during his college days at Princeton, where he worked on his senior thesis about the intersection of soccer, politics and society.
“In all of our conversations over the years, Argentina loomed large as something that was near and dear to his heart,” Kansas City Current co-owner Chris Long, who met Wahl at Princeton, said, “having spent a lot of time there and, obviously, a lot of his energy writing about Argentinian football.”
RELATED | Current dedicates CPKC Stadium press box in memory of Grant Wahl
Grant Wahl died while covering Argentina’s quarterfinal win against the Netherlands during FIFA World Cup 26 in Lusail, Qatar, but that makes his hometown’s connection as La Albiceleste prepares to make Kansas City its home for this summer’s World Cup so momentous.
“I didn't believe it at first,” Eric Wahl said. “... When it finally was confirmed, I'll admit I had a kind of quasi-spiritual moment of, like, this is really beautiful in a lot of ways.”
Long agreed. Argentina had long been expected to build a base camp in the Miami area, but the reigning World Cup holders pivoted after being placed in Group J with games in Kansas City, Dallas and Santa Clara, California.
Argentina will train at Sporting Kansas City Soccer Centre — better known in the region as Compass Minerals National Performance Center — in Kansas City, Kansas.
“This is like his nirvana,” Long said. “Everything came together — his hometown, the game he loves, a country that he's obviously spent so much of his energy on — and with the World Cup here.”
It would have been a dream scenario for Grant Wahl.
“He would be mind-blown,” Eric Wahl said. “It would have been big enough for him just to absorb the fact that Kansas City is going to be a host city. The fact that, not just Argentina, but that four national teams, selected Kansas City for base camps blows my mind. I think he would have been over the moon about Argentina, in particular.”
A spokesperson for the English Federation confirmed that Kansas City is also its first choice for a base camp, while the Netherlands and Algeria reportedly also plan to train in the region in the weeks leading up to the World Cup.
“While I'm always going to be sad that Grant wasn't here to see it, enough of Grant's people are and Grant had so many respected colleagues within sportswriting, within soccer writing, that I know he's here in spirit, very, very much so,” Eric Wahl said.
After graduating from Princeton, Grant Wahl worked at Sports Illustrated from 1996 to 2021, covering college basketball and helping introduce the world to LeBron James before pivoting full-time to soccer. He also became a broadcast analyst and authored “Fútbol with Grant Wahl” on Substack.
He once fell in love with Argentina and now the masses of Messi fans who will flock to Kansas City for this World Cup get a chance to fall in love with Grant Wahl’s hometown.
“Part of me hopes that knowing this is where Grant came from played a role,” Eric Wahl said of Argentina making its base camp in Kansas City. “It probably didn't, but I know that there are people in their delegation who worked with Grant and who knew Grant. I know that they came out here to visit, and I know they left surprised. That is the best feeling. I think there are no greater ambassadors for Kansas City than Kansas Citians.”
Certainly, Grant Wahl would have been talking up his hometown to Argentina’s faithful.
“Honestly, it's a bit heartbreaking,” Long said. “... But then at the same point, it's like full of hope, like some things just happen for a reason.”
Argentina won its third World Cup — and first since 1986 — eight days after Grant Wahl died in Qatar. La Albiceleste will begin defense of their title against Algeria on June 16 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
—
