Roger Bennett discusses World Cup history, Messi, and new memoir

Roger Bennett used a national television appearance to frame the World Cup as both a global spectacle and a turning point for soccer in the United States, just as his memoir on the tournament reached readers. The founder and CEO of the Men in Blazers Media Network joined CBS Saturday Mornings to discuss We Are the World (Cup): A Personal History of the World’s Greatest Sporting Event, published March 3, 2026 by Dey Street Books and HarperCollins.

Bennett’s book spans World Cup history from 1978 through 2022, tracing the tournament through his own perspective as a broadcaster and fan. In CBS materials promoting the interview, he described the World Cup as “a global eclipse that strikes the entire planet,” a line that captures how the event has come to sit at the center of soccer’s international and American growth. The timing mattered: the 2026 men’s World Cup was underway in the United States, the first time the country has hosted the tournament in 32 years.

Lionel Messi remained one of Bennett’s key reference points for that transformation. CBS materials quoted Bennett calling Messi “a demigod, not a footballer,” and he added that he would “never bet against Messi.” Those remarks reflected the way Messi, along with rising stars such as Lamine Yamal, has helped define the sport’s reach far beyond traditional soccer markets.

The memoir promotion has become a wider media campaign built around Bennett’s standing in American soccer culture. Men in Blazers Media Network has been described in speaker-profile and network materials as the single biggest dedicated soccer platform in the United States, a status that gives Bennett unusual reach as the sport moves deeper into the U.S. mainstream. Related interviews and appearances have taken him across CBS Mornings, NPR, PBS NewsHour, Fortune and The Rich Eisen Show, with each stop reinforcing the same message: the World Cup is no longer a niche event on the American calendar.

That shift carries real public and cultural weight. As the United States hosts the men’s tournament again, Bennett’s account links stadium moments, television coverage and star power to a broader change in who follows soccer and how it is sold. The sport’s biggest names now drive attention in a market that is expanding fast, and the buildup to the next major tournaments in the United States suggests that growth is still accelerating.