Oli Kay
speaker
329 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 17 Jun
Oli Kay’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 3.
Appearances
The Athletic FC Podcast · Messi outshines Mbappe and Haaland + why Amorim for Milan? · 17 Jun 2026
podcast
Hi, this is Oliver Kaye, football writer for The Athletic, outside Arrowhead Park, Kansas City, trying to make myself heard above the partying Argentina fans who have just watched with the rest of us in awe as Lionel Messi has scored a hat-trick to defeat Algeria at the age of 38.
I was feeling really nostalgic on the way here this evening because I read that it was 20 years ago to the day that Messi's made his World Cup debut.
in Germany for Argentina against Serbia and Montenegro.
I was actually there in Gelsenkirchen watching him come off the bench.
Incredible cameo performance with a 6-0 win
That was the first time I'd watched Lionel Messi in the flesh.
It has been, in some ways, the biggest privilege of my career has been to watch Lionel Messi in the flesh as often as I have.
This is the first time I've seen him in over three years since he moved to MLS.
And to watch him do this again tonight at the age of 38, perform like that, get the crowd off their feet, he's just absolutely phenomenal.
Who knows whether he'll get the golden boot or play to the tournament,
or whatever, at this tournament.
But one thing is for certain, he is the greatest player I have watched in my time reporting on football.
I don't think there's the slightest debate about that.
It's just a privilege to watch him, and it's a privilege even at the age of 38, 39 next week, rolling back the years.
What a player.
ollie do you agree yeah i do i do i mean looking down the list that we we all came up with various suggestions beforehand and some of them are you know surprise wins shocks uh dramatic finals or whatever but a lot of them are human stories of you know a player often having a redemption moment on a big stage i think people could probably um imagine the kind of things we're talking about or a player sort of
announcing himself on the global stage in a big way.
So, yeah, I think a lot of them are those human and redemptive type stories.
And I think they're the ones that as a football following media and a football following public, we all kind of gravitate towards.
Or not.
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