Come Join a New Era at Backline Soccer

Backline Soccer came into existence four and a half years ago. Across all those years, the one constant has been RJ Allen, who shepherded the site from webhost to webhost, bringing together dozens of wonderful writers and podcasters in the process. Under her leadership, Backline became a place for the kinds of content that you couldn’t get elsewhere. Deep dives into history, tactical analysis, political and social commentary. And most importantly: fun.

As of last week, RJ is stepping back from running things directly. She’ll still be around to do the occasional piece, and we’re planning to keep The 123rd Minute up on the shelf to dust off every once in a while. But she needed a break, and understandably so. I’ve been involved with Backline for most of those four and a half years, and I really can’t stress enough how much time and labor (both literal and emotional) RJ put into the site.

So we’re going to miss having her involved in the day-to-day operations. But we’re also looking at this as an opportunity to kick things back into gear. As the new editor-in-chief, I’m not planning any major changes. Backline will remain a place for fun pieces, quality analysis, and irreverent commentary. But even if there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, it never hurts to experiment a bit. So you can look forward to some new features as well. We’ll be expanding our international coverage, and trying out some new things for the NWSL and US Women’s National Team as well. I think you’re going to like it!

Over the next couple weeks, Backline will be coming fully back online and I hope people will join us for the ride. But in the meantime, I want to extend an invitation to anyone out there who might like to come work here. We are looking for writers, podcasters, editors, photographers, and anyone else who thinks they might have something to offer. Anyone is welcome to get in touch, but I want to particularly encourage those who can bring new perspectives to the women’s soccer world. The woso media world is a lot less diverse than it should be, and that really hurts the quality of coverage we can provide. I want to do my part to alleviate that.

If you’ve ever thought about throwing your hat into the ring, now’s the time. The world needs to hear what you’ve got to say. Go ahead and fill out the application form below, and I’ll be in touch as soon as I can.

-- Charles