The Sultan of Swat, the Colossus of Clout, the man who allegedly called his shot the way a hedge-fund manager “calls” a market crash: George Herman “Babe” Ruth. Americans still genuflect at the mention of his name, but step outside the continental bubble and the reaction turns politely blank, like a waiter in Paris when…
Hannah Hampton: The Goalkeeper Who Makes Brexit Look Like Amateur Hour By the time you read this, Hannah Hampton has probably saved more shots than the Bank of England has saved face, and with considerably fewer press conferences. The 23-year-old Aston Villa and England custodian’s latest master-class—an 87th-minute penalty denial against Spain in the Nations…
Yannick Noah: The Last Frenchman Who Could Still Make a Stadium Sing Without Setting It on Fire By Dave’s International Cynic-in-Residence Paris, France – In an age when most former athletes monetise nostalgia by hawking NFTs or launching their own line of artisanal beard oil, Yannick Noah remains a stubborn anomaly: a one-time tennis champion…
Rod Laver: The Last Man Who Made the World Shut Up and Watch By L. V. Carver, International Correspondent, Dave’s Locker In an age when a TikTok of a cat sneezing can eclipse a cease-fire negotiation, it takes a special kind of fossil to remind us that once—brace yourself—skill mattered. Enter Rodney George Laver, the…
Peter Schmeichel, the colossal Dane who once stood between Manchester United’s posts as if guarding the last pint of Carlsberg on Earth, has long since retired from professional football. Yet his shadow—broad, brooding, and occasionally wearing a goalkeeper’s cap—continues to stretch across continents like a smug eclipse. From Lagos to Lima, Schmeichel’s name is invoked…
The Curious Case of Eddie Giacomin, or How a Bronx Goalie Accidentally Became a Global Rorschach Test By the time the Iron Curtain finally admitted it was made of polyester, Eddie Giacomin had already slipped through it—on grainy VHS tapes smuggled in diplomatic pouches, on cigarette-smudged hockey cards swapped in Budapest schoolyards, and in the…
In the grand theater of global spectacle—where billionaires race to Mars and teenagers topple governments with a meme—there stands a bald Dutchman hurling tungsten missiles at a board the size of a dinner plate. Michael van Gerwen, three-time world champion and walking endorsement for prenatal caffeine abuse, has become the unlikely barometer for how the…
Shane Warne: How a Man in Cream Whites Turned Cricket into Global Schadenfreude When Shane Warne bowled “the ball of the century” at Old Trafford in 1993, the planet was still divided into neat Cold-War time zones, dial-up internet sounded like a dying modem, and the phrase “global superstar” was reserved for Michael Jackson and…
Michelle Pfeiffer, the original cat-eyed sphinx of Hollywood, has spent four decades quietly proving that global soft power can be exercised in a Chanel suit and a smirk. While nations pour billions into embassies, summits, and panda-diplomacy, Pfeiffer has been exporting a far more potent product: immaculate cheekbones and the implicit promise that somewhere in…
Björn Borg, the Ice-God Who Taught the World How to Melt Gracefully By Dave’s Locker International Desk Paris, 1981. An entire continent was still arguing over whether disco was dead, the Soviet Union was cheerfully invading Afghanistan for sport, and shoulder pads were considered a legitimate fashion choice. Into this maelstrom of questionable taste strode…
VIENNA, AUSTRIA — In a week when the planet is busy arguing over whose oligarchs are more photogenic, the death of Andreas Nikolaus “Niki” Lauda at 70 has reminded a distracted globe that there once existed men who took genuine risks for something as quaint as “going faster than the other guy.” The three-time Formula…
PARIS—Somewhere between the genteel pop of champagne corks on the Champs-Élysées and the less-genteel pop of another dislocated knee on the hard courts of Melbourne, Chris Evert keeps resurfacing like a polite ghost at the banquet of modern sport. The woman once known as the “Ice Maiden” still skates through global conversations—usually right when some…
