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Simon Kuper joined the Financial Times in 1994, not as a sportswriter. He ended up writing the daily currencies column and was driven out by tedium in 1998. He returned in 2002 as a sports columnist and has been there ever since, occasionally allowed out of his sports box to write about books, the Netherlands or other subjects.
Simon was born in Uganda and grew up in London, the Netherlands, the US, Sweden and Jamaica. He studied at Oxford, Harvard and the Technische Universität of West Berlin. His first book, Football Against the Enemy (1994), set him on a path of writing about sport with an anthropologist’s eye. His column in the FT tries to place sport and sportsmen within a country, a time, a society, while also being about sport itself.
Later he wrote Ajax, the Dutch, the War: Football in Europe during the Second World War (2003), and Retourtjes Nederland (2006), which is an inside-outsider’s view in Dutch of the changes in Dutch society in recent years. He now lives in Paris with his wife and daughter. - -
Bamboo Goalposts
While Chinese fans excel as couch potatoes at betting on foreign football, they rarely don the boots themselves, writes Simon Kuper
Winning souls for basketball’s higher cause
David Stern, commissioner of the National Basketball Association, is on a mission for the sport
US soccer scores
Something odd is going on. As of this year, North America is soccer territory. This has little to do with David Beckham, and more with a changing US, writes Simon Kuper
A briefing on Barça
For Man United, who visit Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium in the Champions League, here are some tips, writes Simon Kuper
What sport tells us about Ed
At 30, Ed Smith will captain Middlesex in the new English cricket season, and he has just published his third book
Psychologist coach who puts Barça stars on the couch
Frank Rijkaard is a born psychologist, who enjoys observing the personalities around him. He smokes, downs soft drinks, and discusses football and players.
Born to play basketball
Pau Gasol is aiming for the biggest five months of his career: first the NBA title, then an Olympic medal in Beijing. At 27, this doctor’s son is finally where he wants to be
Petite Anglaise
In the tradition of ‘Madame Bovary’, a famous Paris-based blogger publishes an account of her break-up against mundane, modern family life, writes Simon Kuper
Defender of the faith keeps Boat Race above water
An elite mix of fantasy and fertility that is the Oxbridge Boat Race
The sportsman spy
Moe Berg was the most remarkable sportsman I have heard of, writes Simon Kuper
