Brazilian’s move to Al-Hilal is end of his meaningful career but I have adored watching his limitless beauty as a footballerBittersweet memories. That is all I’m taking with me. So goodbye. Please don’t cry. We both know, I’m not … Ah. Sorry. It’s fine. Just a little dusty in here.When it comes to Neymar and I, me and Ney, the feelings, the farewells, the deeply personal – I’m going to say it – love story of the last 13 years (legal clarification: Neymar has no idea who I am) I feel a lot closer to the Dolly Parton original version right now – rueful, sad, fondly heartbroken – as opposed to the Whitney Houston super-cover: sad but also defiant, hopeful,...
Squabbling about which superclub gets to further enrich the Paris superstar is wearisome but he could do so much betterEurope, several years from now. A thin light strains through the cracked and grimy window. The air is gritty with smoke. The man wakes. He is stiff, cold, tired, afraid. Outside is devastation, the city in ruins. Everyone has fled. Even the sirens sound more distant now. With a trembling hand, the man withdraws his phone from his pocket. He must be sparing with the battery, he knows, but awkwardly he turns it on.Perhaps this morning there will be signal. Perhaps this morning he will find out how far the crisis extends. The screen flickers. He hears the low ping before...
Jaw-dropping goals, trophies and misbehaviour made him a superstar, competitiveness and drive made him a role modelIt is September 2003 and Sweden have just been awarded a second penalty against San Marino in a European Championship qualifier. The team’s designated penalty taker, Kim Källström, has dispatched the first and expects to take this one too.However a 21‑year‑old Zlatan Ibrahimovic has other ideas. He is the player who has been fouled and grabs the ball to take the spot-kick. He scores to make it 5-0 but no one is in a mood to celebrate with him. He has disobeyed orders and, even worse, has put himself above the team. Continue reading...
The French champions resemble a luxury store, full of high-end goods no one can afford and lacking togetherness and spiritParis Saint-Germain can make you sad. In the recent defeat by Bayern Munich we saw none of the class this team should display given their players. On one hand it was a disappointment; on the other it wasn’t a surprise because PSG’s early exit from the Champions League happens all the time.Only in 2020 have the club reached the final. In that unique season, two German and two French clubs contested the semi‑finals, largely because the English and Spanish clubs had not played for a few weeks and were not in the rhythm of the competition, nor in training. This year,...
What makes an impact is basic footballing competence and the cautious progress made under Erik ten Hag would be destroyed in an instantAnd here’s one we made earlier. Please ignore the noises from the basement. We, the sovereign state of Qatar, are here to restore the lost soul of your prized social-sporting institutions. And it’s all going to be fine. There was an unavoidable significance this week in the coincidence of two apparently unrelated events. First the suggestion that Qatar really may have a serious interest in buying Manchester United, or at least enough interest to add its name to the list before Friday’s “soft” deadline. And second the deliciously more-ish scenes of chaos at Paris Saint-Germain as the current...