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Simon Kuper

Life & Arts Columnist

Simon Kuper joined the Financial Times in 1994. He wrote the daily currencies column, before leaving the FT in 1998. He returned in 2002 as a sports columnist and has been there ever since. Nowadays he writes a general column for the Weekend FT on all manner of topics from politics to books, and on cities including London, Paris, Johannesburg and Miami.

Email Simon Kuper @KuperSimon  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
Email Simon Kuper @KuperSimon  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

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  • Thursday, 16 September, 2021
    FT MagazineGerman economy
    The East-West divide still splits Germany

    East Germans, known as ‘Ossis’, are expected to vote more radically than Westerners

  • Thursday, 9 September, 2021
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Did I mention I’ve got a book coming out?

    The financial rewards are scant and demands for self-promotion endless, so what keeps writers writing?

  • Friday, 3 September, 2021
    ObituaryJacques Rogge
    Jacques Rogge, 1942-2021, sportsman and International Olympic Committee president

    Belgian Olympian who earned the nickname ‘Mr Clean’ for tackling corruption and fighting doping

  • Thursday, 2 September, 2021
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    We should guard against the dangers of nature fetishism

    ‘The fetishists are happy to let the planet or starving faraway people suffer for their beliefs’

  • Friday, 13 August, 2021
    Person in the News
    Lionel Messi: football’s shy magician takes flight

    This week the Argentine left Barcelona, the ailing club that has been his home for 20 years

  • Tuesday, 10 August, 2021
    Travel
    My night with Marie Antoinette: living like a king in Versailles’ first hotel

    At Le Grand Contrôle, a lavish new retreat within Château grounds, Simon Kuper enjoys a weekend of 18th-century excess

  • Thursday, 5 August, 2021
    FT MagazineWork & Careers
    Why graduates don’t want careers in gas and oil

    Some major professions — and the boomers in them — are becoming taboo for young people

  • Thursday, 5 August, 2021
    FT Magazine
    How FC Barcelona blew a fortune — and got worse

    The inside story of why the world’s best and richest football club lost the battle for talent

  • Thursday, 29 July, 2021
    FT MagazineGeopolitics
    What happens when elites abandon their homeland

    ‘Does the elite treat its country as a sort of luxury watch that it’s only looking after for future generations or as a stolen wallet full of cash?’

  • Promoted Content
  • Thursday, 22 July, 2021
    FT MagazineFlexible working
    What will arise from the demise of mass commuting?

    ‘For one thing, the pandemic has transformed many suburbs vastly for the better’

  • Thursday, 15 July, 2021
    FT MagazineClimate change
    How the pandemic foretells the climate crisis

    ‘The destruction of the Amazon is climate’s Delta variant. When Brazilian rainforests shrink, rich countries heat up too’

  • Sunday, 11 July, 2021
    FT CollectionsEuro 2020 football championship
    Italy crowned European champions as England lose on penalties

    Home side’s early lead at Wembley proves insufficient as they finally succumb to Achilles’ heel of spot kicks

  • Friday, 9 July, 2021
    FT CollectionsEuro 2020 football championship
    Euro 2020: England expects — the long road back to a Wembley final

    The team’s fortunes have long reflected the national mood. Will their embrace of a continental style end in victory?

  • Thursday, 8 July, 2021
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    How the fight over space status will redefine city life

    ‘No matter which criteria have been used to allocate space, the winners have almost always been high-status people’

  • Wednesday, 7 July, 2021
    FT CollectionsEuro 2020 football championship
    England’s footballers reach first final since 1966

    Harry Kane decider from penalty rebound sets up Sunday Euro 2020 climax against Italy

  • Tuesday, 6 July, 2021
    FT CollectionsEuro 2020 football championship
    Spain stretch Italy but pay the final penalty

    Azzurri fall back on their ancient weapons of deep, massed defence, brilliant goalkeeping and rapid counter-attacks

  • Tuesday, 6 July, 2021
    FT CollectionsEuro 2020 football championship
    England need to play without fear to end long wait for success

    Southgate’s players are first in decades to have a positive experience of playing on international stage

  • Tuesday, 6 July, 2021
    Euro 2020
    Sergio Busquets, Spain’s Mr Indispensable, looks for one final reckoning

    The midfielder overcame Covid to lead his country into a last-four clash with Italy

  • Saturday, 3 July, 2021
    FT CollectionsEuro 2020 football championship
    Ukraine win shows how everything has gone England’s way

    Gareth Southgate’s team acquire the skills to become firm favourites to make Euro 2020 final

  • Thursday, 1 July, 2021
    FT CollectionsEuro 2020 football championship
    Midfield duo lead cast as Mancini plots an Italian job against Belgium

    Jorginho and Verratti are the linchpins of the ‘Azzurri’ as the Euro 2020 quarter-finals begin

  • Thursday, 1 July, 2021
    FT MagazineClimate change
    How to cope with the climate apocalypse

    ‘A not entirely gloom-and-doom plan of action’

  • Tuesday, 29 June, 2021
    FT CollectionsEuro 2020 football championship
    England’s history boys send Germany out of Euro 2020 at Wembley

    Sterling opener and Kane header put team into quarter-finals against Ukraine — and not a penalty in sight

  • Monday, 28 June, 2021
    Euro 2020
    England’s one-sided football rivalry with Germany loses its bite

    The English now define themselves more against each other than against their supposed arch-rivals

  • Monday, 28 June, 2021
    FT GlobetrotterRide with the FT
    Vive le vélo: the ultimate guide to cycling in Paris, from scenic routes to the rules of the road

    With plans in place for a post-car city, cyclists are reclaiming the streets of the French capital. Our FT columnist shares his top tips on how and where to cycle in Paris, in the first of a new FT Globetrotter cycling series

  • Saturday, 26 June, 2021
    FT CollectionsEuro 2020 football championship
    Western Europe’s footballing superiority is about more than money

    Iron Curtain that once divided the communist east from the west persists in football

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