Let’s remember Grant Wahl for the stories he wouldn’t let us forget

Some 24 hours ago, on the eve of this World Cup’s most anticipated match day to date, Grant Wahl posted a blog on his Substack, using identical opening and closing lines:

They just don’t care.

As the soccer world awaited the likes of Lionel Messi and Neymar in back-to-back games, Wahl spotlighted the CEO for Qatar’s World Cup committee brushing aside the death of yet another migrant worker. In a BBC interview, Wahl recapped, Nasser Al-Khater had said, “It’s strange that this is something you wanted to focus on as your first question.”

I knew about that interview because Grant Wahl made sure I knew about that interview.

I knew about that story because as the beautiful game was being played quite literally in front of his eyes, Wahl wrote — and wrote and wrote — about its ugly underbelly.

He just would not let it go.

And now he’s gone.

Wahl, a distinguished and well-known American soccer journalist and graduate of Shawnee Mission East High School, died while covering the FIFA World Cup in Qatar — covering it like few others dared — his wife confirmed late Friday evening.

No cause of death was given, and the details are scant and fluid. According to the Associated Press, he died while reporting on Friday’s match between Argentina and the Netherlands.

It is as devastating as it is stunning.

Few made a bigger impact on any sport about which they reported. Wahl was a soccer writer and podcaster, most prominently for Sports Illustrated before starting his own blog, though the title did not fit the job. The backbone of so much of his work would become a dedication to equality and human rights, what he envisioned as the roots of journalism, and soccer was simply his tool for expression.

That did not stop just because officials in Qatar preferred he focus instead on the dividends of their financial investments to secure the World Cup; it only accelerated.

Wahl was an accountability journalist operating under the mask of the world’s most popular sport. He brought attention to the homophobia and human rights violations prevalent in Qatar, and we had come to expect nothing else.

It was never just about the matches. Always more. He loved the game, to be clear, but his true passion became telling the stories behind it — the good, the bad and the intolerable.

He wore a rainbow shirt to the United States national team’s opening match to demonstrate his support of the LGBTQ+ community, which includes his brother, and he was initially not allowed into the stadium for the match. Qatar criminalizes gay relationships.

Wahl was eventually permitted to enter the stadium. And then he just kept writing.

In a tournament that features 32 nations from across the globe, in fact, he spotlighted the most American thing of all.

He spoke up in the face of power.

His courage is a lasting memory.

And now he is, inexplicably, gone much too soon, leaving a gaping hole in a sport that could not avoid his crosshairs.

Wahl had said both on his podcast and his Substack that he had been ill during the World Cup, potentially with bronchitis, writing Monday, “My body finally broke down on me.”

Some members of the U.S. media told the AP that Wahl was “stricken while in the media tribune at Lusial Iconic Stadium during extra time and could not be revived.”

“I’m in complete shock,” wrote his wife, Celine Gounder, who served on the COVID-19 advisory board’s transition team for President Joe Biden.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State added, “We are engaged with senior Qatari officials to see to it that his family’s wishes are fulfilled as expeditiously as possible.”

We can remember Wahl for the stories he would not let us forget. For not only the stories he told, but the places in which he told them.

Qatar included. The seedy backdrop of this World Cup cannot be lost. Wahl made sure of that.

But there were more. He once campaigned for the FIFA presidency against Sepp Blatter, trying to cast light on the organization’s operations — operations that are still producing Netflix documentaries in the year 2022.

I won’t profess to have known Wahl well personally, more like a distant admiration for the work. If you conduct a Twitter search for his name, though, you will be greeted with an onslaught of messages from those who knew him better than I, from prominent figures like LeBron James, Becky Sauerbrunn and the commissioner of MLS, Don Garber, and so many others.

But also from people you likely don’t know, because Wahl dedicated time to uplifting those who followed his footsteps.

While he initially reported on college basketball with Sports Illustrated — including Mario’s Miracle at KU — he would inspire a generation of soccer journalists. When so many hoped soccer would become mainstream in America, he first made coverage of soccer mainstream. And then he used his status to amplify others.

“Grant Wahl and soccer are inextricably linked,” wrote Abby Wambach, the U.S. Women’s National Team’s all-time leading scorer. “I have looked to Grant and his work for decades. The soccer story here in the U.S. has Grant’s name all over it.”

International soccer, too.

Down to his final posts.