Before the year 2000, Carlos Roa never would have expected to be playing for Argentine club Olimpo today. He didn’t think he’d be alive today, let alone playing football for a living.

Carlos Roa, a goalkeeper once rumored to be on his way to Arsenal and Manchester United, shocked the world of football when he announced that he was retiring from the sport because his religion wouldn’t allow him to train or play on Saturdays. But the shock didn’t end there. Roa also announced that he was convinced that the coming of the millennium would bring an end to the world.

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Stephen Colbert is a comedic genius. He skewers the world of TV punditry by acting out an extreme version of the pundits themselves (of course, even in his extremes, he’s often right on target).

One of the funniest parts of his show, The Colbert Report, is his Better Know a District series, in which he interviews members of Congress (it was to have 435 parts until Colbert retired convicted bribe-taker Duke Cunningham’s district).This past Thursday saw Stephen Colbert interviewing Washington state representative Adam Smith. In between discussions of rhubarb, secret intelligence-gathering programs, and whether he supports NAMBLA (he does not, it turns out), Colbert informed Rep. Smith that he is a member of 29 caucuses, which was news to the congressman.

One of these caucuses, Colbert pointed out, is the Soccer Caucus. (If you’re wondering, yes, this does exist, although its membership has not been updated since the 2006 elections.)

Colbert got his best Andres Cantor on and asked Smith, “You’re on the soccer caucus … what are some of the soccer caucus’ gooooooals?” Watch it for yourself (the soccer bit comes with 0:45 seconds left).

There has been much discussion recently on the impact of foreigners buying teams in England. One effect has been angry English fans who see people come in and buying their local clubs simply to make a buck. Some fans have protested by setting up their own teams (see FC United of Manchester). The Christian Science Monitor reported this week on another scheme to counter the current trend of wealthy investors buying teams. The website myfootballclub.co.uk, writes Mark Oxley, is pooling £35 investments from everyday folks in the hopes of buying a team. When they have enough money, the group will then purchase a team voted on by these small-time investors. In voting on the website, the club most fans are interested in taking over is Leeds United.

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The United States has a long and sordid history of interventions in Latin America. The “banana republics” of that region have often had policies imposed on them by the American government or business. But in Ecuador, one American brought something to the locals that they all welcomed. His name was George Capwell and he founded Emelec, one of the most popular soccer teams in Ecuador.

George “El Gringo” Capwell

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Sepp Blatter will not be walking the streets of Bolivia any time soon. The FIFA president is public enemy number one in the Andean country after announcing the decision to ban games at altitudes above 2500 meters. The move has angered many Bolivians, who claim it is discriminatory.

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It’s one thing to play on an amputee soccer team because you have lost a leg in an accident; it’s quite another to be consigned to playing on this team because your leg was chopped off in a brutal war. The conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 1990s left many without arms, legs, and, in many cases, their lives. The man who backed much of this violence was Charles Taylor, the American-educated former president of Liberia. As Taylor goes on trial for war crimes, these two Liberian amputee players - both former child soldiers - are a reminder of his brutality. They play for two of several amputee teams in Sierra Leone and Liberia, teams created not by accidents, but by horrific acts of violence.

Photo credit: AP / Rebecca Blackwell