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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New Evidence of Rio Ferdinand’s Childhood Flirtation with the Stage

He’s 12 or 13 here, and portraying the role of “Fizzy,” the janitor at Fat Sam’s speakeasy in the musical Bugsy Malone. It’s a gangster piece—right up Rio’s alley, you might think—but all Fizzy wants is to win an audition to show Fat Sam his dancing skills.

I quote from the official libretto:

I won’t take no for an answer
I was born to be a dancer now, Yeah!

Here’s an insanely creepy clip from the 1976 movie of the show, for anyone who wants to compare Rio’s performance to that of a small child forced to dance before a looming camera while lip-synching to the voice of a dangerously unstable adult.

All things considered, I prefer Rio. I’m just not sure how 50 Cent is going to feel about this.

[via The Beautiful Game]