The beautiful game

Available for 27 days

With less than a week before this year’s FIFA World Cup kicks off in Mexico City Stadium, Lopa Kothari drafts a selection of global folk and roots-based music celebrating the beautiful game. Among them are songs dedicated to some footballing greats: Manu Chao’s tribute to Argentine legend Diego Maradona and an ode to Cameroon’s Roger Milla from Congolese soukous musician Pépé Kallé. Also, Mexican Institute of Sound, composer of the “Mexico City Theme” for the tournament, shares three tracks that inform his latest collaborative album with Meridian Brothers, offering a window into the tropical sounds of his home country in the early 1970s. Produced by Gabriel Francis A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3 To listen on most smart speakers, just say: “Ask BBC Sounds to play Music Planet.”