In September 1986, following the collision of two ships a few miles off the coast in the North Sea (leaving one, a medium sized passenger ferry, stranded on a sandbank) Pelé was left alone for what felt like the first time in decades. Few knew he was there at all and even they'd now disappeared. …
The Pigeon on Hus’s Head
There was a pigeon who spent much of his time sat on the head of Jan Hus, that had perfected the art of sitting there just so unflinchingly still, all of the tourists who stopped to look at him thought he was a part of the statue. "Classic Czech absurdists", they'd say to each other …
Oskar Kosche’s Job
Foto by Stefanie Fiebrig at textilvergehen You just call on me, brother, when you need a handWe all need somebody to lean on As his teammates wheeled away having secured the unlikeliest of victories, a goal that the Unioner will talk about for a generation, Andreas Luthe didn't join in. He had been at fault …
Union Berlin’s past, and Union Berlin’s future
As I cycle along Wilheminenhofstrasse, the Indian summer's sun on my back, the wind coming off the Spree across to the north, the first thing that hits me is the little things, the minutest of details that have changed on the iconic, industrial revolution era yellow brickwork of the Transformatorenwerk. There's new tags painted up …
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Prince Far I’s Heavy Manners
In 1976, 44 years ago, Jamaica was on the verge of civil war. Two major political parties were vying for power, weaponizing the lowest in society, the downpressed, without thought or mercy. Guns had become a way of life and a fact of life for too many, affecting those in the poorest, most blighted districts. …
Michel Platini’s Folly
When my kids ask me, as I hope they one day will, how best to strike a football, I will show them a goal Michel Platini scored against Sampdoria in Turin in about 1985. I'm not certain of the year, just because he always scored against Sampdoria. Juventus scored four goals in four games against …
Dust
There's dust blowing all across Karl Marx Straße. They're renovating another house there. Another one of many now that the gold rush has passed the point of rumour. Pretty soon mine will be the last building on my street, just around the corner, without a new façade, without turn of the last century busts with …
Jimmy Hoge’s Best Story
There was a strangely sad, though beautiful and quite remarkable moment at the 1.FC Union members meeting back in 2009, when Jimmy Hoge received his golden needle. The highest honour the club can present. He was not a man often at a loss for words, but this time there was a choking in his throat …
The Pimenow’s and the Landvoigt’s Brothers
Given what they were about to do, four men that looked less like identical mountainsides than they really should, sat in two identical boats, ill suited to anything other than flying across still water at great speed. Neither pair looked at the other. They didn't have to. The Pimenows were as aware of the Landvoigts …
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Sebastian Andersson’s Goals
I interviewed Sebastian Andersson last year for Textilvergehen, only a day or two after the fire that started in a fridge in the main stand so catastrophically damaged the building. Workers ripped plasterboard unceremoniously off the walls with claw hammers as I waited. They pulled out mile after mile of wiring. It was a mess. …
Jacob Sweetman 