The Run of Play is a blog about
the wonder and terror of soccer.

We left the window open during a match in October 2007 and a strange wind blew into the room.

Now we walk the forgotten byways of football with a lonely tread, searching for the beautiful, the bewildering, the haunting, and the absurd.

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Transfer Gossip Poetry Grenade, Vol. I

Fist of rage And for Accounting Purposes, My Name Is Ronaldo “Ronaldinho Gaucho” de Assís Moreira

Ronaldinho, now Barça’s a fetter,
Has been told that Man City is better,
And would happily go
For the same rate as Jo,
Meaning roughly ten million per letter.

No One Is Being Called a Queen in This Argument

Now, whomever one happens to play for,
One can hardly expect that one’s payor
Will concede that Milan,
Having taken his pawn,
Can proceed to take his Adebayor.

Frank Lampard, Contemplative, Dines on the Deck of His Yacht

When he breathes in the steam from his pasta
In the cool Amalfitana Costa
Does he think, “To live here
I can’t wait one more year”?
Or, “Mourinho! Piantala! Basta!”

Cristiano Among the Philosophers

In the clear light of reason, to weigh all,
And conclusively—brilliantly—say all,
Is a goal he can’t shake;
No one knows what’s not fake,
But he senses, he thinks, what’s not Real.