🏈0️⃣6️⃣3️⃣ Jan Woska

By Jan Woska

Jan in Paris with the New Orleans Saints.

Meet Jan Woska, who connects the USA and France using sport as a tool to highlight historic, cultural and economic ties between Louisiana and France with the aim to make the New Orleans Saints the most beloved American football team in France.

Jan comes from Ostrava in the eastern corner of Czechia – a region historically tied to mining and heavy industry where people have always seen sport as a glimpse of hope and social unifier. Playing soccer, skiing, and cycling, he always looked for ways to incorporate sport into his studies and work. That’s why he focused on sports law during his studies of Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague. He further devoted himself to sports diplomacy when he became a diplomat joining the Czech Foreign Ministry in 2018. His first foreign posting changed everything – in Washington, DC, he started building a robust sports diplomacy portfolio as a Cultural Attaché at the Czech Embassy between 2019 and 2025. Under Jan’s leadership, sports diplomacy emerged as a defining pillar of the Embassy’s work, advancing the profile of Czechia in the United States, fostering meaningful cultural exchange, and unlocking economic and political opportunities that would likely have remained far less accessible without his deep commitment to this field.

Jan’s Story

One of the Embassy’s sports diplomacy initiatives brought me to New Orleans, where what began as casual brainstorming around the growth of basketball and American football in Europe gradually evolved into something more significant. Those early conversations ultimately shaped the next chapter of my career, and upon concluding my tenure as Cultural Attaché, I assumed the role of International Relations Manager for the New Orleans Saints and the New Orleans Pelicans in the summer of 2025.

This opportunity emerged from the growing appetite among American sports teams for global expansion. Simply put, many organizations feel they are reaching a ceiling at home and see their greatest opportunities for continued growth abroad. Across the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB, teams seek to broaden their fan bases, attract new sponsors, and build a lasting global legacy. They do so by expanding access for young athletes to their sports, sharing best coaching practices, and inspiring new audiences by bringing their star athletes directly to international communities.

In the NFL’s Global Market Program, clubs apply for rights to actively enter selected markets – without them, they would not be able to sell merchandise, organize watch parties, or support flag football (non-contact and co-ed friendly version of American football that will become an Olympic sport in LA 2028 in countries of their choice.

The NFL has formalized this process of international engagement under the “Global Market Program.” Each of the NFL’s 32 teams is now active in at least one country. Some of them host multiple clubs in the market, with Germany or the UK having around 10 teams with GMP rights at the same time.

New Orleans Saints Linebacker Demario Davis in Paris with Jan Woska and team, July 2025.

The Saints started their international journey by selecting France; a country historically, culturally, and economically intertwined with the Crescent City and the entire Louisiana. The goal? In my words: to make the Saints the number one NFL team for French fans. This includes building connections between the Saints and French fans, American and flag football players, sports teams, influencers as well as government bodies.

Jumping into my role, the Saints energized France in July 2025 by an intense activation trip to Paris featuring star linebacker Demario Davis. It was the first multi-day encounter between the Saints and French public during which the team significantly strengthened partnerships with a local American football team - Paris Musketeers, French Federation of American Football and the U.S. Embassy in Paris which hosted one of their public events. But most importantly, the Saints made clear to fans and French players that they are there for them – by meeting with Saints aficionados in New Orleans Saints Café in the heart of Paris, hosting a clinic for over 200 French youth flag football players or organizing a flag exhibition during a European Football League game of Paris Musketeers. 

The Sports Diplomacy Connection

This trip was just a beginning. With my colleagues in New Orleans, I am preparing a long-term strategy with regular engagement to keep the momentum going. In the remaining months of 2025, the Saints hosted a watch party in Paris, and supported an NFL flag tournament and New Orleans Jazz Festival in the French capital. The Saints also welcomed a delegation of Paris Musketeers and French Federation of American Football in New Orleans where they had a chance to meet with the organization’s leadership, see a team’s practice and a game against Atlanta Falcons. 

Scenes from the Saints’ Parisian séjour.

Sport is often referred to as a universal language, something that communicates itself without borders or the need for further explanations. But the tradecraft of sports diplomacy lies in adapting its use to appropriate cultural context, socio-economic reality, sports administrative framework, and even geopolitical situation. That is something I want to continue offering to teams like the Saints and Pelicans, and other organizations and athletes that want to activate strategic power of sport. In September 2025, I founded my own company PassDiplomacy to provide the best service and expertise. 

Whether on the field or racetrack, in sports diplomacy you need good teammates. That is why in November 2025 in New Orleans, the Saints signed a memorandum of understanding with the French Federation of American Football that I drafted. It highlights their commitment to the growth of flag football in France and provides a framework for further cooperation. You can certainly get French fans by playing good American football in New Orleans. But to win their hearts? You need to show that you genuinely care about youth and community in their home country! And that you can never do it alone, but with partners. Besides partnering on NFL Flag tournaments in France, New Orleans Saints are now developing a brand new youth flag tournament with FFFA that would extend their brand beyond Paris, to regions across France. 

Jan and team in Paris, July 2025.

Another learning lesson– you represent a team that is huge in the United States, but when you come to France, not everyone will know American football. And – perhaps to the surprise of New Orleanians – not many people will be aware of the historic and cultural ties between France and New Orleans. If it were not for passionate French fans who discovered from Saints fan forums and social networks that Demario Davis would be in Paris in summer 2025, he would be enjoying much calmer walks on the crowded Paris streets than he would anywhere in public in the United States. Ironically, he continued to surprise U.S. tourists spending their summer in France by providing unexpected and pleasant “sport celebrity” distractions during their adventures to the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre.

As a joke, one could say – the fastest way for the Saints to become very popular in France would be to draft a French player! Just look at the excitement caused by the San Antonio Spurs and their French star Victor Wembanyama, not only during international NBA games in Paris. But from another perspective, building long-lasting, genuine connections should go beyond one or two individual players. It might take longer, but it could potentially bear fruit by bringing new fans and partners for the Saints, highlighting French players, or even fostering sports marketing collaborations between Louisiana and French educational institutions – or attracting more French tourists to New Orleans. That is the potential and power of sports diplomacy, and its unparalleled beauty!

Mapping the Connection

From New Orleans, Louisiana to Paris, France

Further Reading/Resources

[E] “Saints Welcome Paris Musketeers on Visit to New Orleans,” New Orleans Saints, November 20, 2025.

[E] “New Orleans Saints Announce Partnership with Paris Musketeers,” New Orleans Saints, May 6, 2025.

How to Cite This Entry

Woska, Jan. “Voices: Jan Woska,” FranceAndUS, https://www.franceussports.com/voices/063-jan-woska. (date of consultation).