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Hi, all!
Here’s a story about the first match tennis players Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev, when they were actual children.
So we’ve heard about the epic battles between pals Medvedev and Rublev as kids. Here’s Rublev shedding more light, laughing about it, in that great documentary about him (translated on YouTube)
— Ravi Ubha (@raviubha) February 15, 2021
‘After that I realized we were both nuts’ pic.twitter.com/yCsnTdDHY1
Ramble of the Day
It seems there are a number of famous people whose football allegiances are shrouded in mystery. Matt Damon left a very confusing trail when it came to his football allegiances, while Queen Elizabeth probably sparks more interest than she’s worth in this department. The latest famous person I realize may occupy similar company is Paul McCartney, who, as a Liverpudlian, reasonably only has two options. There’s still a little bit of confusion, though.
My interest was intrigued when I ended up on McCartney’s Wikipedia page. The guy has a tiny section on his page dedicated to football, and the first sentence is pretty damn interesting: “McCartney has publicly professed support for Everton and has also shown favour for Liverpool.” The page goes on to explain that he’s a fan of both, but I had to verify the information myself because I couldn’t track down the original source from the article Wikipedia cites. WIRED had me covered.
Back in 2018, McCartney was very clear about his allegiances (and I’ve queued the video at the moment he starts. It turns out, he actually is a fan of both: “My dad was born in Everton,” he said. “Officially, I’m an Everton fan because that’s our family team, but I knew the players of Liverpool years ago, and they did so great and they were big fans of mine, so I’m a Liverpool and an Everton fan. I know it’s not strictly allowed, but I got special dispensation from the Pope.”
I’m pleased that we could solve this mystery, even if we ended up with a very weird answer. It certainly separates McCartney from Damon’s and the Queen’s company, though; it probably separates him from basically every other football fan out there.
tl;dr: I randomly found out that Paul McCartney is both an Everton and a Liverpool fan.
Stay informed, read this: Laura Miller on Vanessa Springora’s Consent, described at France’s #MeToo memoir for Slate
Links of the Day
David Alaba will leave Bayern Munich on a free at the end of the season.
Shrewsbury manager Steve Cotterill came home after spending 33 days in the hospital with COVID-19.
Reading’s Fara Williams revealed she was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, a kidney condition, last year.
A longer read: Tariq Panja and Rory Smith on Barcelona’s path to financial crisis for The New York Times