Simon Kuper is a South African-British author. He writes about sports "from an anthropologic perspective." Kuper was born in Uganda of South African parents, and moved to

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

in the Netherlands as a child, where his father,

Adam Kuper Adam Jonathan Kuper (born 29 December 1941) is a South African anthropologist most closely linked to the school of social anthropology. In his works, he often treats the notion of "culture" skeptically, focusing as much on how it is used as on ...

, was a lecturer in anthropology at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

. He is named for his grandfather—Adam Kuper's father—who was a South African Supreme Court judge assassinated in 1963. He has lived in Stanford, California, Berlin and London. He studied History and German at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, and attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

as a

Kennedy Scholar Kennedy Scholarships provide full funding for up to ten British post-graduate students to study at either Harvard University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Susan Hockfield, the sixteenth president of MIT, described the scho ...

. He now lives in Paris with his family. He won the

William Hill Sports Book of the Year The William Hill Sports Book of the Year is an annual British sports literary award sponsored by bookmaker William Hill. The award is dedicated to rewarding excellence in sports writing. It was first awarded in 1989, and was devised by Graham ...

in 1994 with his book ''

Football Against the Enemy ''Football Against the Enemy'' is a book by Simon Kuper. It won the 1994 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. Subscription required. In the United States, it was released as ''Soccer Against the Enemy.'' In fiction In Ted Lasso ''Ted L ...

'', which was later released in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

as '' Soccer Against the Enemy''. He has also written for

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

and

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, and is currently a sports columnist for the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

. In 2003 he published his book ''

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

, The Dutch, the War: Football in Europe during the Second World War''. He co-authored the 2009 book ''Soccernomics'' with Stefan Szymanski. The book put forward a formula allowing Kuper to predict that Serbia and Brazil would play the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final. In 2022 he published ''Chums - How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK'', about the connections that enabled a university network to dominate Westminster. Kuper usually writes about football, discussing the culture that surrounds it — such as the Old Firm rivalry — as well as the on-field play. He has written on cricket occasionally, with articles on

cricket in the Netherlands Cricket has been played in the Netherlands since at least the 19th century, and in the 1860s was considered a major sport in the country. The sport is governed by the Royal Dutch Cricket Association. Other sports (notably football) have long sin ...

and cricket in apartheid South Africa. Kuper also writes in Dutch, and his work frequently appeared in publications including the Dutch newspaper

De Pers ''De Pers'' (literal translation: ''The Press'') was a freely distributed Dutch language tabloid newspaper in the Netherlands, with a circulation of around 200,000. Its competitors were '' Metro'' and ''Sp!ts ''Spits'' (; en, Peak/Rush Hour; s ...

, the literary football magazine

Hard Gras Hard may refer to: * Hardness, resistance of physical materials to deformation or fracture * Hard water, water with high mineral content Arts and entertainment * ''Hard'' (TV series), a French TV series * Hard (band), a Hungarian hard rock super ...

, and opinion magazine

Vrij Nederland ''Vrij Nederland'' (Free Netherlands) is a Dutch magazine, established during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II as an underground newspaper. It has since grown into a magazine. The originally weekly and now monthly magazi ...

References

External links

Simon Kuper short biography
in Financial Times web site * 1969 births Living people British male writers Dutch male writers British sports journalists People from Kampala People from Leiden Alumni of the University of Oxford Harvard University alumni Kennedy Scholarships {{England-writer-stub