Simon Kuper

@KuperSimon85k followers

@FT writer. Now increasingly at @simonkuper.bsky.social. Latest books: World Cup Fever, and my memoir of modern Paris, Impossible City

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Posts 80 posts

#	Date	Post	↓ Outlier	Views	Likes	Reposts	Bookmarks
1	Nov 6, '24	Paris Saint-Germain fans just unfurled this giant banner before tonight's PSG-Atlético Madrid match	297×	3.5M	128k	21k	2.4k
2	Aug 29, '23	What's also interesting is that Brexiters no longer have "If we do xyz, then Brexit will work" narratives. No sunlit uplands anymore - just whining about Remoaners and explaining w	49.9×	593k	554	148	6
3	Dec 20, '22	1/ Today I heard again a familiar piece of old nonsense about the French team that I want to refute: the falsehood that France imported gifted players from African countries in ord	35.4×	421k	1.3k	168	41
4	Jan 3, '25	I'm not here to advocate for Starmer or Labour, but this from the @FT counters the nonsense that Musk and Ackman are spreading about a country that they know nothing about. Source	27×	320k	3k	1.1k	332
5	Apr 20, '23	Even many senior Brexiteers now understand, quietly, that Brexit failed. Lots of them will probably exit government next year and never return. One day Brexit will be the first lin	26×	309k	1.5k	547	85
6	Mar 23, '23	Getting rid of huge cars is just about the easiest thing we can do for the climate - and given the sevenfold increase in SUVs since 2010, pretty important. It's much easier than ba	25.5×	303k	1.2k	332	39
7	Jun 15, '24	Marcus Thuram comes out against the far-right Rassemblement National, which is closer to national power than ever before in July's legislative elections. Ousmane Dembélé hinted in	19.7×	234k	569	148	21
8	Oct 17, '23	I've just unfollowed a smart man whom I admire because he can only view the horrendous Israel-Hamas war through a one-eyed lens. In his case, everything Israel does is right. For o	19.7×	234k	984	66	20
9	Mar 11, '22	Short thread: it's quite right that the UK has sanctioned Roman Abramovich and deprived him of control of Chelsea. English football has suddenly turned against him. But: all this i	16.7×	0	4.7k	1.3k	193
10	Jul 2, '22	1. The fact that Manchester United are largely targeting Ten Hag's favourite players from the Dutch league (F de Jong, Timber, Lisandro Martínez + Malacia whom he considered buying	15.2×	0	4.8k	558	91
11	Apr 19, '20	Massively important - all countries should do likewise	15.1×	0	4.6k	1.3k	35
12	Apr 20, '21	1. We say in Soccernomics: "Anyone who spends any time inside football soon discovers that just as oil is part of the oil business, stupidity is part of the football business."	9.2×	0	2.3k	691	164
13	Jul 6, '23	We say in Soccernomics that the main reason why male football clubs don't appoint female coaches is that stupid fans, journalists, players, sponsors and directors would object	8.9×	106k	582	64	9
14	Aug 26, '25	Very chuffed to get my hands on a copy of my book World Cup Fever - a story of the tournament told through my own nine World Cups. It's out in English and Dutch in early October, b	8.9×	106k	269	49	39
15	Oct 23, '17	Michael Bloomberg: “I think Brexit is the single stupidest thing any country’s ever done, until we Trumped them” #CityLabParis	8.8×	0	2.2k	990	0
16	Aug 3, '24	Roger Federer now has the distance to look back on his career. He talks to me @FT about how he never expected to become a star, how Nadal transformed him, when he peaked, Leo Messi	7.5×	89k	369	75	143
17	Nov 1, '23	Imagine for a moment that this is you, with your kids, while thousands of children are being killed around you. The Hamas murders of October 7 are unforgivable. None of the people	7.0×	83k	384	113	20
18	May 25, '19	This is best 2-minute analysis of UK politics I’ve ever heard	6.4×	0	1.8k	405	155
19	May 26, '18	No Liverpool players went over to Karius when he was lying on the ground, only Madrid players	6.1×	0	875	753	1
20	Feb 8, '19	As a young journo in 1995 I interviewed Kate Hoey about sport. I came away quite shaken by how stupid she was. I had thought till then that that would be a bar to even modest caree	6.0×	0	1.8k	482	7
21	Jun 27, '21	Eden Hazard has broken an ankle three times. Every time he gets the ball, the Portugese target his ankles, having already put Kevin De Bruyne out of the game. This was the way grea	5.7×	0	1.9k	318	15
22	Jun 28, '24	The French far-right tells a really good story about the collapse of France. There's only 1 problem with it: it's not true. Me @FT on how I often feel I'm the only person in the co	5.6×	66k	418	139	119
23	Dec 8, '18	1. Quick thoughts on what's happening in France, after I've been out this morning watching gilets jaunes in Paris. Purchasing power has long been a bigger problem in France than in	5.4×	0	821	602	51
24	Jun 2, '19	Mo Salah seems to have reduced Islamophobia among Liverpool fans. Hate crimes in Merseyside + anti-Muslim speech among LFC fans down sharply, relative to other countries/other fans	5.3×	0	1.3k	532	21
25	Jun 28, '19	Roger Federer and I chilled on his private plane, gorged ourselves, and reviewed his career and fatherhood. A really nice guy. Lunch with the FT: via @financialtimes	4.9×	0	1.2k	348	89
26	Oct 8, '24	Johan I and Johan II, as they were known, doing their day-job of embodying the 1970s	4.8×	57k	755	73	25
27	Nov 15, '15	If verified this is v. important - it suggests that part of ISIS plan is to discredit refugees, get Europe to close:	4.7×	0	345	946	0
28	Oct 8, '21	Newcastle Utd selling its heritage to a murderous regime is the perfect symbol for the entire country - me @FT	4.7×	0	1.3k	295	58
29	Mar 11, '22	4. So which Premier League owners are more culpable? The Saudis at Newcastle. For 7 years now, they have been fighting a war in Yemen that's as gruesome as the war in Ukraine, albe	4.3×	0	1.4k	326	13
30	Oct 17, '20	It's out: my interview with Arsène Wenger on everything from growing up in an Alsatian village where nobody would talk about the war, to living with workaholism, to his pain that A	4.3×	0	1.2k	269	107
31	Dec 13, '20	And on the subject of Brexit, this is the best sport ever and if the Irish had colonised the world, nobody would ever have heard of football	4.2×	0	1.6k	165	14
32	Nov 4, '20	After one minute we were leading, solidly. Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise German goals were counted. VERY STRANGE, and the bookmakers got it comp	4.1×	0	1.4k	227	9
33	Mar 1, '19	I got to peek behind the curtain at @FCBarcelona. How the club and its Innovation Hub are rethinking football - from beetroot juice to what Messi does in the first few minutes of t	4.1×	0	1.1k	277	97
34	Nov 7, '24	I'm a bad and hasty photographer, and should have shown the whole French text beneath this PSG fans' banner: "La guerre sur le terrain mais la paix dans le monde" - "War on the pit	3.9×	46k	1k	49	18
35	Mar 11, '22	6. As long as the Saudis own Newcastle, the Premier League is a shamefully compromised operation. Getting rid of Abramovich after his comfy 19-year ride in which he accomplished ev	3.8×	0	1.3k	259	3
36	Dec 20, '22	4/ It's fine to point out that many French players have African origins, and are proud of them. But don't say they 'are African'. They are French and feel French. Like so many peop	3.7×	44k	712	62	3
37	Mar 1, '22	He's not a politician but he is the current face of Abramovich's sportswashing project, so these questions are legit	3.6×	0	1.3k	146	20
38	Apr 20, '21	Note the clubs that stuck with the Super League longest: Agnelli's Juve, Perez's Real Madrid + the US-owned profit-seeking quartet of Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and Milan; Spurs a	3.6×	0	1k	249	36
39	Nov 20, '22	I doubt this is being shown in the tv images but stadium was about half-empty long before the end. Mostly just Ecuadorians and the paid claque of chanting Qataris behind the goal l	3.5×	0	1.2k	201	14
40	Aug 21, '20	Paris St-Germain isn't some fake club invented out of nothing by the Qataris. It's new (from 1970), but so are most of the suburbs of Paris, where most PSG fans live. Me @FT on Ney	3.4×	0	863	243	87
41	Apr 14, '22	Today @FT publishes the first extract from my book Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK. To understand this ruling caste - Brexit, Partygate, the distance from	3.4×	0	773	256	105
42	Jun 21, '19	All of us columnists like to think that our own random personal experiences explain the world. But I went to Oxford in the 1980s, so mine really do. Me @FT on the origins of today'	3.3×	0	623	251	67
43	Aug 5, '21	On the same day that Barcelona says Messi is leaving, my new book on the club is launched with this @FT extract on how their terrible transfers of the last 5 years left them with n	3.3×	0	844	234	74
44	Feb 13, '20	It's just not true that populists were brought to power mostly by unemployed factory workers. The main person behind the revolution? The comfortably-off, middle-class, suburban or	3.3×	0	621	312	82
45	Jul 3, '16	#FRAICE 4-0. This sort of puts the greatest humiliation in England's football history in a new, more humiliating perspective	2.9×	0	400	495	0
46	Jul 2, '22	2. What happens to all Ten Hag's purchases if he fails like all United managers of the past 9 years? And is it really the case that the optimum buys for one of the world's richest	2.6×	0	942	107	4
47	Nov 19, '18	In 1986, when I was 16, I wrote my first ever paid football articles on 2 rising young Dutch talents: Gullit + Van Basten. Now, after Holland beat France, me for @ESPN on Frenkie d	2.5×	0	733	195	22
48	Nov 3, '17	Tory Brexiters have become what anthropologists call a ’cargo cult’. Me in @FT	2.4×	0	409	287	0
49	Jul 21, '21	Only a photo, but I've just been sent my first sighting of my new book on Barça - for which the club threw open many of its closed doors to me. This is the UK edition, with big tha	2.4×	0	701	80	53
50	Jul 14, '24	Excuse the very rare selfie and this will definitely not become a habit, but my first Euro final was 1988 in Munich, so a brief commemoration is in order	2.3×	28k	432	10	3
51	Apr 20, '21	6. That's the basic weirdness of the football industry. On the field, it's pure meritocracy. There are no bad professional footballers. (I hear your jokes, but really, there aren't	2.3×	0	783	129	11
52	May 8, '19	A great Ajax team emerges every 24 years, so next time I’ll be 73 if still around. Right now I hate football. Thanks to everyone who sent kind messages	2.2×	0	825	100	3
53	Jul 12, '21	1. Last thoughts on Euro 2020, before I switch off. Here's the stand near me at Wembley yesterday. More people than seats, whole gangway filled with standing insurgents. The reason	2.2×	0	549	181	23
54	Mar 11, '22	5. How close are links between Mohammed Bin Salman and Newcastle United? This is from last week's @FT football business conference. 'PIF' referenced here is the Saudi Public Invest	2.2×	0	709	159	6
55	Aug 26, '20	I was innocently writing a book about FC Barcelona, going around interviewing dozens of staffers, when suddenly the club imploded. Here's me @FT on how Messi became omnipotent insi	2.1×	0	580	151	50
56	Jul 7, '20	I can't remember seeing a better political ad	2.1×	0	552	185	26
57	Dec 8, '18	Gilets jaunes: a bit over 8,000 in Paris. Marche pour le Climat: about 25,000 in Paris. Which one will get more coverage? (Both marches were also nationwide - the climate one drew	2.1×	0	425	263	0
58	Mar 11, '22	2. Abramovich has a 'no enemies' policy and always made sure he stayed chummy with Putin, doing his bidding whenever asked. But it's wrong to imagine he's still at the heart of the	2.0×	0	741	110	5
59	Apr 20, '21	2. Related to this: a fellow football writer once told me he'd tried and failed to do business with a legendary English football institution. He said, "I can work with crooks, and	2.0×	0	678	129	11
60	Mar 11, '22	3. Abramovich came by his money dishonestly, paying for political protection, but he's not a warmonger. This war is the last thing he wants - it will probably cost him most of his	1.9×	0	682	108	3
61	Jul 2, '22	3. My argument isn't that these are bad players. They are all v good. My point is how a giant club goes about making such big choices. It was fair to 'trust the manager' in era of	1.9×	0	654	77	3
62	Mar 26, '20	Every Norwich City player has been given a phone list of dozens of elderly club supporters, with instructions to call them for chats during confinement, goalkeeper Tim Krul tells D	1.8×	0	528	115	0
63	Jul 16, '18	You can say, "Many French players have African heritage, they are proud of it, it's part of who they are. They are also French, Parisians, men, humans etc." But for God's sake stop	1.7×	0	466	167	2
64	Apr 25, '19	For the first time ever, there's a fully functioning Anglophone country in continental Europe: The Netherlands. What happens to a country when its own language starts to die out. M	1.7×	0	356	134	22
65	Nov 16, '18	I was thinking of writing a column trying to explain how the UK got this incredible generation of lazy opportunistic politicians, but I wrote it already in 2016	1.7×	0	345	189	12
66	Apr 20, '21	4. Related: football is an industry where practically everyone in a boardroom is a white man, so the talent pool they are drawing from is not large. There's also a fast track for e	1.7×	0	554	97	7
67	May 7, '17	Now just waiting for the defeated candidate to make his concession speech #Frenchelections2017	1.7×	0	402	200	0
68	May 27, '19	David Cameron's decision to go for that referendum just keeps on paying off. First he put the Europe issue to bed for good, and now he's saved the Tory Party and seen off the Farag	1.6×	0	499	131	2
69	Mar 31, '21	Imagine if they'd played the whole of Macedonia	1.6×	0	665	51	0
70	Apr 19, '21	A club is not a business. That's the basic point here. Me @FT	1.6×	0	409	97	29
71	Jul 15, '18	Amazing. French players just broke into Deschamps' press conference chanting "Didier Deschamps!", sprayed him and all the journos with water, sang, danced, and there was a "Vive l'	1.6×	0	496	122	2
72	Apr 28, '22	Author with book. Chums is published today! The roots of the caste of Oxford Tories that runs the country and made Brexit. Why Britain is an Oxocracy, and how to change that. Get y	1.6×	0	403	86	18
73	May 2, '21	Quick calculation: after scoring 2 so far at Valencia tonight, Messi has scored or assisted more than half of Barcelona's league goals since Jan 1. That's a crazy proportion - hard	1.5×	0	522	92	11
74	Jun 30, '19	I wanted to tweet this before June is out: 25 years ago this month, my first book, Football Against the Enemy, appeared. Original cover here. Happy memories but I never want to sle	1.5×	0	479	44	1
75	Nov 20, '22	Early days but so far Qatar look possibly the worst team I have seen in a World Cup	1.5×	0	566	45	6
76	Jul 7, '22	I'm not an anti-BBC conspiracy theorist but here's my experience. For my book Chums, I've done loads of media interviews but zero for BBC. They haven't asked me, though did cover a	1.5×	0	489	80	17
77	Feb 10, '19	250 years of French political culture captured in one video	1.4×	0	385	127	4
78	Jun 29, '22	Frenkie de Jong signs for Man United. Here's my interview/profile of the man whom I then thought of as my favourite footballer, in February 2020	1.4×	0	412	83	34
79	Dec 8, '18	9. Conclusion: big, long-lasting problem of purchasing power, personal dislike of Macron, persistent French discontent for over a decade now. But last weekend's images of violence	1.4×	0	363	134	2
80	Oct 5, '21	You spend millions on product placement, and then you just hope it pays off. Ted Lasso is a brilliant series, especially Season 2 Episode 6	1.4×	0	586	23	3
81	Apr 24, '22	“Out-of-touch metropolitan elite”: 58% “The People”: 42%	1.4×	0	486	68	4
82	Apr 20, '21	Big misunderstanding that clubs have been profit-driven since 1990s. In all of Europe, that's only true of Man United + maybe Arsenal. Almost all other clubs lost money. Most didn'	1.4×	0	361	93	21
83	Aug 21, '18	Paris in August	1.3×	0	448	81	2
84	Jul 11, '21	Supposedly the crowd is limited to 60,000, but in the sections next to me, there are more people than seats. Not sure how people got in. Large crowd of able-bodied people standing	1.3×	0	319	118	2
85	Dec 8, '18	5. BUT let's not exaggerate the level of turmoil in France. Two weeks ago, there were more people at the (barely reported) women's march in Paris than the 8,000 gilets jaunes who d	1.3×	0	355	129	0
86	Sep 23, '17	As a non-American who doesn't follow the NFL, I feel grateful to Trump to alerting me to what an impressive person Colin Kaepernick is	1.2×	0	398	85	0
87	Jan 22, '19	Amsterdam region seriously running out of space to host all these post-Brexit businesses	1.2×	0	297	127	0
88	Apr 20, '21	I would have felt much happier if certain footballers had come out against the Super League plan BEFORE it imploded	1.2×	0	430	47	2
89	Apr 20, '21	5. More on the football/stupidity thread: one club president told me that ex-players who get executive jobs don't understand office work, e.g. even the basic concept of working 8-h	1.2×	0	424	59	6
90	Jun 27, '21	This is how a weak referee lets what could have been a great football match degenerate into a 1970s-style display of thuggery, with the possible loss of one of the tournament's bes	1.2×	0	436	42	3
91	Feb 28, '20	I got to interview Frenkie de Jong, my favourite footballer. Me on what makes him unique	1.1×	0	325	74	26
92	Apr 20, '21	It's that uniquely football mixture of stupidity plus greed that we saw in action this week	1.1×	0	414	61	3
93	Sep 26, '19	Like Roger Federer, he is unmatched at what he does and could go on to set a record that could stand for centuries	1.1×	0	381	63	1
94	Jul 26, '21	Author with book - first copy I've had in my hands. Two years of work, or nearly 30 depending when you start counting. Thanks very much, @shortbooksUK!	1.1×	0	387	30	6
95	Jun 12, '21	Apologies for having tweeted the match report of Italy just now - have deleted. I had been away and have only just heard about poor Christian Eriksen	1.0×	0	486	8	4
96	Oct 31, '22	A strange coincidence that Trump, Johnson and Bolsonaro were all kicked out at the earliest opportunity	1.0×	0	310	46	2
97	Jul 12, '21	3. The English FA had been complaining for decades that it never got to host a tournament even though it was supposedly brilliantly equipped to do so. Much whining every time they	1.0×	0	330	57	2
98	Jun 29, '21	They're playing Football's Coming Home at Wembley. Memory of England-Holland 4-1 in 1996: towards the end the crowd spontaneously sang the song. From my seat I could see Frank Skin	0.9×	0	395	13	0
99	Jul 8, '21	My sense at Wembley last night - when there was barely any booing of the knee - is that the players have won that battle. I never believe that football changes much in a society, b	0.8×	0	295	42	4
100	Jul 12, '21	5. Most would have liked England to win, but they understand it's only a game. People at the coffeeshop were talking about completely different things this morning. A football tour	0.8×	0	323	25	5
101	Feb 8, '19	Later when I was less naive I thought: ‘well you can get on if you’re stupid but not if you consistently get caught lying.’ Wrong again. Brexit has been an incredible learning oppo	0.7×	0	277	30	0

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