Why stick to sports is a lie and how Alan Rothenberg used tactics to conquer American sports—and the world

Before Messi or Ronaldo. Before the MLS. Before the World Cup returned to American soil—a Jewish kid from Detroit who stared down ayatollahs, outmaneuvered billionaires and built an empire from nothing. When Iran came for America on the pitch in 1998, only one man understood the truth: sports and politics are the same game, because he wrote the rules.