Covid might have shut the
clubs, but a whole heap of
new openings mean Ibiza
is still out on its own as
Europe’s number one.
How Ibiza
Rediscovered
Its Chill
OKU IBIZA proper, Oku Ibiza, the Balearics’ most Above: Poolside Laidback lunches are served at Kima,
talked about new place of the year. at Oku Ibiza’s the hotel’s all-day Mediterranean
As everyone knows, there are two Those already a little bored of Ibiza’s exclusive private terrace restaurant and there’s a
Ibizas. There’s the sophisticated sometimes self-conscious hippy villa; (right) the handsome minimalist spa with a
one, all villa parties and jeroboams romance and overripe sensuality hotel’s expansive short but sweet treatment menu. The
of Whispering Angel, lunches at will find the hotel a welcome shot 50-metre pool. inside/outside Oku restaurant opens
La Paloma. And then there’s the other of straight-lined contemporary cool. in the evening and it’s a beaut. Chef
one, with its stag dos and pints of There’s a heartening amount of Mark Vaessen, once of Sushisamba,
Stella, its bad music and worse drugs. polished concrete and rectilinear has put together a beast of a menu
The spiritual home of this second shapes, and a welcome absence that leans heavily Japanese, with
Ibiza is, of course, San Antonio – of throw cushions. The heart of black cod and Wagyu beef on the
the island’s wild id to Ibiza Town’s the place is its epic 50-metre robata grill and oysters that come
cool, calm superego – which makes pool, around which body-beautiful topped with caviar. At last, San
it an unlikely spot for a properly couples bronze themselves in micro Antonio is sitting at the big table.
smart hotel, but here it is, just a swimwear and sun oil while drinking
15-minute walk north of the town protein smoothies from the juice bar. From £302 per night. okuhotels.com
98 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
IT’S BEEN A FUNNY COUPLE OF YEARS FOR IBIZA. Strict no GQ World
dancing Covid policies meant that the epicentre of Travel
European hedonism became an island-sized remake
of Footloose, with the super clubs shuttered and the Ibiza
police sending spies to villa parties. For other, lesser • Oku Ibiza
destinations, it would have been fatal. But Ibiza isn’t • Six Senses
other destinations and instead of crying into its cup,
it emerged stronger with a host of new openings – big
name beach clubs and a stunning new Six Senses
among them – that cemented its place as the continent’s
dreamiest hangout, the place we find ourselves going
back to again and again and again.
SIX SENSES
The beach at the new Six Senses Ibiza With a smartly appointed combination of no-need-to-leave suites and
isn’t really a beach at all; it’s more like a draw-you-in communal spots, the new Six Senses Ibiza has already
rocky outcrop, a plateau of blackened, established itself as one of the island’s new luxe guard.
moon-like stone from which you can
hurl yourself into the deep sea. Six
Senses being Six Senses, it hasn’t tried
to make it conventionally beach-like
by dumping a load of imported sand
on it, but has worked with the wildness,
turned it into a kind of arid camp by
the sea, all cushions and rugs and
side tables for your glass of wine. It’s
a brilliant little spot that neatly distils
the essence of a very organic feeling
resort, which looks almost like it’s
been cut out of the cliff, Petra-like, in
a serene part of Ibiza’s largely unspoilt
north coast. Hotels this expensive
sometimes put such a premium on
privacy that they feel oddly disjointed,
with lots of walled-off spaces. Here,
everything seems to tumble towards
the pool: the stacked, ziggurat-style
suites, the terrace restaurants, the
whole gravitational pull of the place.
And this gives it a communal feeling,
which didn’t seem to bother the A-list
actresses milling about when we were
there. That said, the suites are grand
enough for those who want to keep to
themselves – ours came with its own
garden terrace – and there’s loads to
do away from the pool: kayak trips,
yoga classes, catamaran tours, cookery
classes, and the sort of super high-end
spa you would expect at a Six Senses.
At The Farmers’ Market restaurant, the
locally grown organic produce spills
out exuberantly all over the tables and
New York sushi scenester BondST has
taken up residency in the waterside
Beach Caves. But the real star is chef
Eyal Shani’s HaSalon, where the
modern Israeli-Mediterranean food is
served on prettily lit tables among the
trees. Eat there after an afternoon of
swimming in the wild dark sea. It might
be the best thing you do all year.
From £382 per night. sixsenses.com
FEBRUARY 2022 GQ 99
GQ World
Travel
Ibiza
• El Silencio
• Beachouse
EL SILENCIO of chef Jean Imbert’s cooking, which With Lynchian art,
combines classical Ibiza fare – chunky beachfront seating
A lavishly tentacled plush octopus tuna steaks seared on the grill – with and classically
and a giant pink foot aren’t exactly a Lynch-pleasing dose of the weirdly Ibizan plates,
what you expect at an otherwise brilliant: a cooked avocado covered El Silencio’s new
achingly du jour weathered wood in a mysterious crust and containing, outpost is a fresh
and wicker beach club. But then this improbably and rather joyously, a Balearic vibe.
El Silencio is the offshoot of the cult perfectly runny egg yolk. The club
Paris nightclub of the same name, is on Cala Moli, which is a little gem
which was designed, of all people, of a beach, and there’s a cute little
by David Lynch. He wasn’t, it seems, pool out the back. When Ibiza is back
involved in the creation of the Ibiza to its blistering best, after what has
outpost, but you imagine he would been a quiet couple of years, you
probably approve of the eight-legged imagine there are going to be some
cephalopod conjured into being by sensational shindigs at this place.
the Spanish artist Miranda Makaroff.
And I imagine he might also approve elsilencioibiza.com
BEACHOUSE
Bad beach clubs are truly terrible
places, as anyone who has ever
endured a day of watching the sons of
shipping magnates spray champagne
to too-loud music will know. There are
other beach clubs out there, though,
more understated affairs, where the
music is muted and moody and pretty
people lounge on cushion-scattered
double beds sipping from fruit-filled
glasses of Cava sangria. Beachouse
on Playa d’en Bossa, just south of
Ibiza Town, is such a place. As much
as anything it’s a restaurant on the
sand with some seriously comfortable
sunbeds: all you need to park up
happily for the day. The soundtrack
has a laidback José Padilla feel and the
kitchen turns out simple but seriously
well-cooked dishes: tuna tartare with
mango, coriander and kimchi mayo,
and sharing plates of grilled seabass.
beachouseibiza.com The warm nights, open skies and moody beats of Beachouse.
100 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
GQ PARTNERSHIP
T H E T H I N G S T H A T separate the great a ten-minute walk from the gates of a stone-paved beach, and Dubrovnik’s
hotels from the merely good hotels Dubrovnik Old Town, with its baroque best cocktail bar with incredible views
are their ineffable qualities: history, palazzi, 13th-century walls, narrow from its terrace.
glamour, genuine luxury. Of course you streets and medieval forts.
can’t just conjure these qualities from For high-end pampering, there’s
the air. But you sure know them when The hotel’s sense of history and loca- a brilliant state-of-the-art spa with a
you see them, as you do on a visit to tion – it has a private and serene spot on modernist pool, whirlpools, Roman
the iconic Excelsior Dubrovnik, a great the waterfront with incredible views of baths, Finnish saunas, and an expertly
hotel if ever there was one. the Adriatic – make it a deeply glamor- curated list of treatments that includes
ous place: past guests include Sir Roger specialist phyto-aromatic massage.
In terms of history the Excelsior is Moore, Francis Ford Coppola; the queen
up there with the best. It’s been wel- of Hollywood, Elizabeth Taylor, and the And the food is similarly upscale
coming guests since 1913 and it sits in actual Queen, Elizabeth II. and inventive. The hotel’s three restau-
one of Europe’s most storied cities, just rants include Prora, a lovely romantic
Of course you don’t attract this kind waterside spot for lobster and scallops
Hotel Excelsior of guest unless your hotel offers genu- plucked from the sea, and Sensus,
Dubrovnik is the ine five-star luxury, which is what you Dubrovnik’s most exciting fine din-
Croation city’s get at the Excelsior and then some. ing restaurant. Here, chef Peter Obad
prime coastal stay. The interiors are handsome: natural serves unconventional and creative
shades, dark wood furnishings, hand- dishes such as lobster tortellini in a
picked accessories and, on the walls, bisque and Pernod sauce, alongside
statement contemporary art. And the superb local wines from Excelsior’s
details are just so: airport transport highly regarded wine cellar.
via limousine on request, romantic
dinners on the balconies of the suites, From £310 per night. adriaticluxuryhotels.com
The
Adriatic’s
Iconic
Hotel
Hotel Excelsior Dubrovnik hits every beat:
dream locale, storied history, and a totally
modern sensibility.
FEBRUARY 2022 GQ 101
This is One
of Britain’s
Best New
Restaurants.
And It’s on the
Outskirts of
Solihull...
Like a bolt from
the blue, the
Midlands – yes,
the Midlands –
is making a play
to be your next
weekender.
Smoke at
Hampton
Manor, headed
by chef
Stu Deeley,
is the kind of
restaurant to
make the
Midlands a
must-visit.
102 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
A C K I N T H E D A Y , you similarly glorious and invariably you GQ World
will eat so many that you’re duty bound Travel
B had two choices when it to pull on your wellies and head out for a
came to romantic jaunts stomp around the place. The surround- • Hampton Manor
to the country. You either ing countryside is not exactly up there
had to re-mortgage and go with England’s finest, but our four-mile United Kingdom
ultra-high-end at one of the established loop was just long enough to feel like it
aristocratic superstars: Le Manoir, was acceptable to start drinking again
Cliveden, Coworth Park, et al. Or you when we got back, which is exactly what
found yourself a pretty little pub with we did, at a wine tasting that introduced
a great kitchen, an open fire and some a few of the funkier natural wines from
snug little rooms upstairs. The last thing the award-winning list.
you did was go anywhere in the great
grey middle; all those tired country Because you move through the
houses with their AA rosettes and retir-
ees, their carpeted dining rooms and Faces become familiar and a kind of community
reverentially plated tomato timbales. develops as you chew the fat over whiskies
But the past is a different country;
now the middle tier is squarely where Clockwise from top: experience at the same time as the other
it’s at. There’s The Fish Hotel on the Informal exposed guests, faces become familiar and a kind
Farncombe estate, with its Scandi flour- brick and sharing of community develops as you thumb
ishes, the coolly contemporary Cowley tables at Smoke; through the hotel’s record collection
Manor, the growing litter of perfect lit- former stately home during pre-dinner cocktails or chew the
tle Piggies. All of them stylish, modern, Hampton Manor; fat over whiskies and games of chess in
food-led. And all of them affordable. (above and right) the high and handsome living room.
Newish to the gang is the constantly the estate’s
evolving Hampton Manor, once the standalone cottage. There’s an arts and crafts feel to the
country seat of Sir Robert Peel’s son, then interior with lots of period wood pan-
an old people’s home, now a family-run elling and William Morris wallpaper,
hotel that feels lifeful and lived-in and one-off items of furniture, deep green
has in its armoury Smoke, one the best velvets, midcentury shapes. If you’re
restaurants in Britain. Surprisingly, it’s going with friends, be sure to book the
on the outskirts of Birmingham, near standalone cottage which sleeps four to
Solihull, in a perfectly pleasant little vil- eight, has its own kitchen, and is basi-
lage called Hampton-in-Arden: not that cally the hunting lodge of your dreams.
location really matters much, for this is
a place made to be a destination in and A new restaurant, Grace & Savour, is
of itself. currently under construction, with five
Admirably, there’s a glorious inflex- rooms attached to it. It’ll be a place for
ibility to their offering: couples book one-night breaks for food-buffs with a
two-night guided breaks, starting on bit of hands-on action in the kitchen.
Wednesdays or Fridays, that include The chef is David Taylor, recently
bed, breakfast, an afternoon wine- poached from Maaemo in Oslo, who is
tasting, and dinner on subsequent busily building a network of suppliers
nights in each of their two restaurants. who practise regenerative farming.
The most exciting of these is Smoke,
an informal exposed brick and shar- After dinner at Smoke the team get
ing tables kind of place helmed by the out fire pits for guests to sit round and
heavily inked and absurdly talented toast s’mores over the coals. S’mores
Stu Deeley, who won MasterChef: are so-called because when children
The Professionals in 2019. His team eat them they want “some more, some
serve a four-course wood-fired tasting more, some more”. Much like this visitor
menu that manages to be clever and to Hampton Manor.
precise, but also big and bold and full
of just the right amount of charred Two nights, £395 per person.
edges. Highlights include Mangalitza hamptonmanor.com
pork chops and cloud-like Isle of Mull
gnocchi. On our visit, the main courses
came with smoked onion boulangère
potatoes and roasted hispi cabbage, both
of which we would gladly eat, unaccom-
panied, every day for the rest of our lives.
The other restaurant, Peel’s, is room-
ier and a bit more serious. It’s got a star
and serves six-course tasting menus –
similar care is lavished on carnivores,
pescatarians, and vegetarians – which,
when we were there, culminated in an
apple tart filled with bay leaf custard
and brandy that had us smiling all the
way upstairs to bed.
The on-site bakery’s pastries are
FEBRUARY 2022 GQ 103
GQ PARTNERSHIP F Z E E N , T H E G L O R I O U S adult-only or work out in one of the daily classes at
resort on the quiet southwest coast of the Technogym-packed outdoor fitness
Chasing lovely Kefalonia, is all about balance. centre. Be sure to book yourself into
Good Vibes The hotel sits harmoniously in the the serene Idor spa for seaweed wraps,
at Greece’s local landscape, the food is delicious botanic detoxes, and Minoan massages.
Hip Island and nutritious, the rejuvenating spa
Hideout sits alongside an energising gym, and Want something a little more laid-
the wellness focus is offset by a cocktail back and louche? Amble down the
Kefalonia’s adult-only F Zeen resort has menu you can get happily lost in. walkway to Lourdas beach, where
been remodelled as a clean-living the hotel has high-spec sunbeds exclu-
sanctuary complete with an outdoor Set in lush gardens, the resort has sively for guests and everything you
gym, fresh water pools, organic menus a kind of raw and rugged romance; need to make the most of the astonish-
(and a corker of a cocktail list). weathered stone walls protect private ing aquamarine water: snorkelling gear,
plunge pools and verdant plants spill kayaks, stand-up paddle boards. Lunch
out over the textured wood of the ter- at the resort’s Selini restaurant, where
races. It is family-owned and run so you can get stuck in to a Greek lobster
you get proper home-from-home hos- linguine that goes particularly well with
pitality, and there is a soul to the place: a large glass of the local rosé. Then head
the resort is full of nooks and corners out to explore the island on a Jeep safari
and secret spots, and the rooms have a or lounge about in the outdoor cinema.
relaxed lived-in quality. Or simply park up by one of three fresh-
water pools with your book and one of
It’s a resort so rich in options that the signature F Zeen Spritzes.
you can take your holiday in whichever
direction works. Want a rejuvenating Best of all, is to take on board the
week? Eat lean and clean at F Zeen’s two F Zeen holistic experience and com-
restaurants where the chefs turn out a bine the two: all-round wellness and
balanced menu from the resort’s on-site deep authentic relaxation, health, and
organic garden. Roll out your Manduka a little hedonism, the perfect balance of
mat at one of three yoga decks, with a good life well lived.
their sparkling sea views, take part in
a private guided hike up Mount Ainos, From £180 per night. fzeenretreat.com
Private plunge pools
and signature pours
contribute to the
vibe at Kefalonia’s
hot new resort.
104 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
GQ World
Travel
The Surprise
Balkan Montenegro
• One & Only
Superstar
to Add to All glittering bays
Your Bucket List and megayacht
marinas,
Montenegro is
punching above
its weight.
For ages, we’ve
trekked north to
visit the fjords.
Now, Montenegro’s
Bay of Kotor – with
the help of a new
One & Only – is
making the case
to look south.
FEBRUARY 2022 GQ 105
GQ World
Travel
• One & Only
Montenegro
H E R E D O Y O U winter your boats? One & Only’s first European resort includes a restaurant by Giorgio Locatelli, pan-Asian club Tapasake, and
a concierge team equipped to help you explore the rugged medieval villages and Yugoslav-era strongholds of
W Well, be you Venetian, Ottoman this stupidly pretty Adriatic enclave.
or Canadian real estate mogul
Peter Munk, the best answer has 2
long been Montenegro’s Bay of
Kotor. Surrounded on all sides by mountains, The bay is an
the year-round tranquil waters are a brilliant absolute doozy:
place to harbour your fleet – be it 17th-century more than 60 miles
warships or indeed $200 million superyachts of shoreline, rocky
– while the winter storms rage on the sea. massifs, sparkling
It was in 2007 that Munk invested heavily in waters, picturesque
what would become Porto Montenegro, a lux- island churches...
ury yacht marina with berths up to 250 metres
long. Unsurprisingly, super-upmarket hotels
followed, and, really, why wouldn’t they? The
bay is an absolute doozy: more than 60 miles
of shoreline, rocky massifs on either side, spar-
kling waters, picturesque island churches,
immaculately preserved medieval towns.
The latest hotel to open, on the other side
of the water from the marina, is One & Only
Portonovi, the group’s first hotel in Europe. It’s
a grand old place, more of a city state, with a
dozen or so Venetian-style palazzi clustered
around manicured gardens, enticing swimming
pools, and its own little beach. It’s all hushed
and luxurious and insanely spacious, with a
slightly identikit international high-end look,
although modernised versions of old-school
Montenegrin-style fireplaces offer local flavour.
In the high season there are three restau-
rants: a smart Italian joint by Giorgio Locatelli,
a pan-Asian club, and La Veranda, which serves
Mediterranean food with Montenegrin flour-
ishes. Put yourself in the capable hands of the
charming sommelier and let her educate you in
the hidden delights of Balkan wine, particularly
the sensational Serbian whites. For those who
want something a little more ascetic there’s a
full-service Henri Chenot spa, where you can do
the detox programme and all manner of far-out
treatments including whole-body cryotherapy
at -110C.
For the concierge team, no challenge is too
great. They pair you with a charming guide
with whom to gad about on the water in the
hotel’s slick little speedboat, or, best of all, can
arrange a private tour of Tito’s personal villa.
The Yugoslav head honcho had it built in the
late 1970s, a few years before he died, and it
has been barely touched since. The interiors are
completely brilliant, not least Tito’s personal
blue marble bathroom, which is worth the visit
alone. I mean, when else in your life will you
ever get that close to a strongman’s commode?
From £722 per night. oneandonlyresorts.com
106 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
GQ PARTNERSHIP
Why Belfast in the lobby celebrates its many famous
Should Be Your Next guests – the Clintons return on a regu-
Weekend Break lar basis now that Hillary is chancellor
of Queen’s University – and tells the
Northern Ireland’s capital has reinvented itself as a creative cultural hub story of the hotel’s dramatic history.
with a thriving food, entertainment , literary, and shopping scene. And in And there’s an unmistakable buzz
the Europa the city has an iconic hotel whose fortunes have constantly about the place. Indeed, everything in
mirrored those of the city itself. the hotel just seems to capture the new
mood in the city: time and money has
B E L F A S T I S A C I T Y on the up. It has Above: The Piano Bar at the Europa; (below) the grand view of been smartly invested to give it a fresh
always been a quiet cultural force with Belfast City Hall and out across the capital, as seen from the new look and while it is unmistakably
a strong literary streak, led by CS Lewis hotel’s Observatory lounge bar local, there’s an outward-looking
and then Seamus Heaney, and the kind European quality to it that feels
of lively music scene that could pro- very Belfast.
duce everything from punk legends
Stiff Little Fingers and David Holmes’ Which is about right, of course,
legendary dance parties, through to because in many ways the Europa is as
superstars such as Van Morrison and close as you can get to the city’s heart –
Snow Patrol. Music is still a big part of the views from its legendary first floor
it: local promoters draw top interna- Piano Bar look out across the downtown
tional talent to an impressive number hustle and bustle and it is a place that
of music venues. But it is just one ele- announces itself as part of the city’s ico-
ment of a wider cultural life that sees nography, with that wonderful sign high
the city’s Cathedral Quarter buzzing up on the roof. The hotel restaurant,
seven days a week. The city is packed The Causerie, chimes perfectly with
with galleries, from independents such the city’s current fondness for farm-
as Golden Thread and Belfast Exposed to-table cooking, with locally sourced
Photography through to the six-storey ingredients very much at the heart of
powerhouse that is the Metropolitan what they do. The Causerie chefs take
Arts Centre. Constant new openings the best of Ulster’s phenomenal local
and established players such as Edo produce and turn out innovative dishes
and The Muddlers Club ensure the that feel contemporary and resolutely
dynamic restaurant scene is among part of Europe: a bit like the hotel, and a
the best in Britain. And everywhere bit like the city itself.
you look there are tech startups and
shiny new museums. From £81 per night. hastingshotels.com/
europa-belfast
All this has been part of Belfast’s
reinvention as a progressive cultural
capital, which started back in 1995 with
Bill Clinton’s historic visit to the city.
He stayed at the city’s Europa Hotel,
infamous back then as the world’s
most bombed hotel. Fast-forward 25
years and the hotel, one of Belfast’s
iconic city centre landmarks, has gone
from infamous to world famous and is
currently seeing in its 50th anniver-
sary in grand style. A new installation
FEBRUARY 2022 GQ 107
GQ World
Travel
• Palazzo Fiuggi
Italy
Get Yourself Straightened Out
at the
Spa
of the
Year
Why a new Italian medi-spa
is this year’s place for a
full-body reboot.
P A H O T E L S T H E world Thalasso pools means no booze and no caffeine, which
(above) and Turkish you’ll discover is eminently bearable
S over divide into round- baths (right) are when the food coming out of the kitchen
heads and cavaliers. The among the menu manages to be both extremely healthy
cavalier spas – think oily of science-led and Michelin-standard.
massages, mood music, wellness
scattered rose petals, champagne programmes at The treatments take place in the vast
in the bath – are all kinds of fun, but Palazzo Fiuggi (top). spa. These include hydrotherapy rou-
they’re not transformative; you don’t tines that start with jacuzzi light shows,
walk away feeling renewed, realigned, followed by squelchy mud wraps,
reborn. For that you need to visit a before you’re blasted clean with a reviv-
roundhead-style medi-spa, a place ing jet spray. Ultraviolet light therapies
full of white-coated wellness wizards, reduce stress, while the massages are so
geniuses in the kitchen, the health tech deep you feel like your organs are get-
of your wildest dreams. ting a rubdown.
The latest roundhead on the block
is Palazzo Fiuggi, housed in a big old The space is otherworldly. An epic
art nouveau pile an hour or so west of indoor/outdoor pool looks over Fiuggi’s
Rome. This is the sort of place where charming old town. But best of all are
you arrive and are whisked immediately your sessions in the gym with a Q-like
off for blood tests, 3-D body fat break- personal trainer who will elevate your
downs, stress analyses, and a consulta- workout with wearable therapeutics (a
tion with a doctor. On discovering, say, light-emitting headband) and reactive
that there’s a lot of background stress equipment that realigns your posture
in your system, you’ll have a treatment in ways you never thought possible.
programme tailor-made for you that
will all be about detoxing and destress- Four-night programme including flights
ing at a deep level. For all involved this and transfers, from £2,919 per person.
healingholidays.com
108 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
You can’t click and
collect a sunset
Fully flexible booking, no change fees
T&Cs apply
Mohamed Salah
is the
best footballer
in the world
right now.
The world just
hasn’t quite
admitted
it yet. BY
OLIVER
FRANKLIN-WALLIS
PHOTOGRAPHS
BY
FANNY
LATOUR-LAMBERT
STYLED
BY
JON TIETZ
T H E L O R D M A Y O R of Liverpool is wearing a nervous smile ←← pounds – about £1,500 – from Salah’s father’s car, and the
and a gold ceremonial chain the size of a saucer, the kind police caught the culprit, only for Salah to persuade his
worn to greet royalty or a foreign dignitary – which feels PREVIOUS PAGE father not to press charges, and then actually give the thief
appropriate, because it’s not every day you get a visit money to help turn his life around. (Also true.)
from the Egyptian king. It’s a cloudless autumn day on shirt £199
Merseyside, and Liverpool’s star striker Mohamed Salah Classic Football According to Stanford University researchers, Salah’s
has come to the town hall to film an interview with an arrival at Liverpool in 2017 correlated with an 18.9 per-
Egyptian TV channel. The producers wanted somewhere Shirts cent fall in hate crimes in the city; in Egypt, his involve-
aspirational, opulent, to film their national icon, and ment in a government anti-drugs campaign led to a
honestly they couldn’t have picked better. The building shorts £405 fourfold increase in calls to the helpline. At this point
is ostentatiously beautiful, late Georgian, all Corinthian Hermès it may not surprise you that at Egypt’s last presiden-
columns and gold-filigree cornicing and crystal ballroom tial elections, in 2018, there were widespread reports
chandeliers that the Lord Mayor, a tiny woman named sneakers £70 of voters spoiling their ballots and writing in Salah’s
Mary, informs me each weighs a ton. Staff buzz around Adidas name, despite the seemingly pertinent fact that he
nervously, chattering in low voices while the cameras roll wasn’t on the ballot paper.
in the next room. Salah! Even Mary, an Everton fan – and socks £15 for a
thus a supporter of Liverpool’s closest rivals – is excited. pack of three Finally, some double ballroom doors swing open and
“I’m not a bitter Blue,” she whispers, because all rivalries Adidas Originals here comes Salah, in a black Haculla hoodie and jeans and
aside, who doesn’t love Mohamed Salah? MGSM sneakers, being mobbed by what must be two dozen
→ of the film crew all attempting to get a selfie with their idol.
In Egypt, where his life story is taught in schools, his vintage blazer Salah goes along with it, smiling even though it’s clearly a
nickname is the Happiness Maker. This is as much for his bit much, until eventually his agent intervenes and we take
feats on the field – where he has in five seasons led a resur- t-shirt £25 refuge in another equally splendid room that appears to be
gent Liverpool to Premier League and Champions League shorts £30 set up for a wedding. Salah sits down, hands in pockets,
titles, breaking umpteen records on the way – as his feats unfazed by it all. He is used to the adoration. “It’s some-
off it. He’s got that million-lumen smile; the Afro-beard Adidas thing I wanted,” he says. “But not that much!”
combo; the whole wholesome, hardworking, family-man
image. In Nagrig, the village in the Nile Delta north of vintage bandana from Besides, this is nothing. If he were to step out into the
Cairo where Salah grew up, his generosity is legendary: he Raggedy Threads street outside right now in Liverpool – a city that reveres
has paid to build a school, a water-treatment plant, and an its footballers almost as much as it does the Beatles –
ambulance station there, and every month his foundation instant mob. In New York, he can’t even stay at a hotel
provides food and money to the destitute. without some Egyptian staff member tracking down his
room number and calling up to pay tribute while he’s try-
Tales of Salah’s beneficence occur so regularly that sto- ing to sleep. (True.) And in Egypt itself ? Well, I am unable
ries about it occasionally now crop up that aren’t even true, to adequately convey the extent to which Salah is loved in
but because Salah almost never gives interviews, nobody is his own country, where the bazaars sell his face on every
around to dispel them. Others are true but would seem fan- marketable household item, and streets and schools are
tastical if there wasn’t video and/or photographic evidence frequently renamed in his honour. “Salah is the dream,”
to confirm them, such as the time a bunch of louts were Amr Adib, the Egyptian TV anchor who has come to inter-
picking on a homeless man at a local petrol station, only view him, tells me. “He is a role model. It is a success
for Salah to show up in his Bentley and defuse the situation, story: how you can begin from zero and become num-
before giving the homeless guy money for somewhere to ber one in the world.” For a country that has struggled to
stay. (True.) Or the time that a thief stole 30,000 Egyptian get back on its feet since the Arab Spring uprising over a
decade ago, Salah is something more than an athlete: he
has become a paragon of how to live.
The responsibility can be overwhelming. Not long ago,
Salah took his family – his wife, Magy Sadeq, and their two
kids, Makka, seven, and one-year-old Kayan – back home
to Nagrig for Eid. “I went out with my family just to walk
and go to pray, and suddenly there were 300-400 people
outside,” he says. The throng was so intense that they
couldn’t leave the house. Salah tweeted about it at the time;
one of the few occasions that he has shown anger in public.
“I was so mad. My mum was crying, my sister was crying,
my wife was crying, because they wanted me to go on that
day,” he says. “My father was disappointed. I needed to be
with them.”
Still, he knows that it comes from a place of love.
“I really do understand. People get excited to see you. It is
what it is, you have to deal with it.”
He remembers what it was like, to be growing up without
much. When I ask Salah about the incident with the thief,
he at first tries to dodge the question, apparently not want-
ing to seem crass by discussing his own charity. So I press
him: why did he let him go? “I’m not supporting that [steal-
ing],” he says. “But I’m sure he had a bigger reason to steal.
I just feel he did it for a reason. When my father asked, the
police said he was a really poor guy and had nothing in
his life. So I told him: just help him and leave him alone.”
Mohamed Salah knows firsthand how lives can change,
112 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
and he is nothing if not a true believer in the power of → it with his right across the face of the goal at an angle so
second chances. sweater-vest £510 acute that it hits the far post before nestling into the net.
Connor McKnight
O N T H E F I E L D he is a winger who plays as a striker, a Or his goal in the 2-0 win over Porto in November: First
goal scorer of sublime quality and uncommon consistency. trousers £1,180 he back-heels a pass to Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson
Salah marked his arrival at Liverpool in 2017 by breaking Louis Vuitton Men’s on the edge of the box, then runs on to Henderson’s return.
the record for goals scored in a 38-game season; the follow- The ball is rolling perpendicular to the goal, towards a Porto
ing season, he led the team to its sixth Champions League sneakers £70 defender, when Salah micro-momentarily shapes to shoot,
title; the year after, the club won the Premier League title Adidas and the defender dives to the floor to block it – but Salah
for the first time in 30 years. A freak injury crisis meant hasn’t even touched the ball. Only then does he control it so
last season was, by their standards, disappointing, (they socks £15 for imperceptibly that the ball doesn’t even change speed, and
still finished third). But this season Salah has ascended a pack of three rifles it in at the near post with a deft sweep of his instep.
to another plane. At the time of writing, he has scored 19 Adidas Originals
goals and assisted nine more in just 20 games, putting him This is Salah’s greatest weapon: this sense that he’s
on track to break his own record. To watch Salah play right hat streaming reality on a faster connection than we are. He
now is to experience the rare, thrilling sensation of an ath- price on request doesn’t showboat, instead sprinting at defenders full pelt,
lete’s true peak revealing itself, like an alpine summit in waiting for the smallest misstep or shift of momentum that
clearing fog. As Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool’s manager, told Stüssy he can use to go past. “That’s been my game since I was
me via email: “At this moment, I think Mo can make a very young,” Salah says. We’re in his box after the Porto game,
valid claim for being the best footballer on the planet.” watch £21,400 Salah cooling down in Nike sweats and Yeezys and snacking
Audemars Piguet on blueberries and a Vita Coco. “I get the ball, I am coming
Throughout his career, Salah has been, if anything, to you. I am coming to you!”
underrated: discarded by Chelsea, twice ignored for the
Team of the Year, including in 2018-19, when he was The night of the Porto game, the Anfield crowd started
the Premiership’s joint top scorer. There is a long-held singing his name in the seventh minute, and it was still
perception – unfounded – that he is selfish, that he shoots emanating from nearby pubs long after the final whistle.
too much, or that he chases individual glory over team Liverpool is, in many ways, the perfect fit for Salah. His
success. This is easily disproved by the numbers: no for- face adorns the outside of the stadium and a giant flag
ward in the league has more assists than Salah since he on the Kop. Under Klopp the team has become notori-
arrived at Liverpool, not his regular Golden Boot rivals ous for overwhelming its opponents before they can even
Sadio Mané or Raheem Sterling or Harry Kane. “He’s the escape their own half, and the cruel effectiveness of this
best sort of greedy,” Klopp says. “He wants more for the approach, known as gegenpressing, is really only possible
team and more for himself, but the first part of that is to appreciate in person. The entire team hunts in packs,
what drives him. He wants us, the team, to win first and Salah yelling to his teammates to press high, forcing mis-
foremost.” He has scored more Premier League goals than takes that might be quickly turned into goal chances.
any African player in history, reached 100 goals faster than These chances are produced not by delicate play but by
any other Liverpool player. Despite this, he has never bro- sheer force of will – and Salah is better at converting them
ken into the top three for the Ballon d’Or, football’s most than perhaps any player alive.
esteemed individual prize. Partly this is just the misfor-
tune of having existed at the same time as two of the great- T H E B E S T - K N O W N story about Salah is that as a kid he
est to play the game. But there’s also the lingering sense had to travel by bus on a nine-hour round trip every day
that his game doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. to get to training. This is also true. He learned to play
the Egyptian way, on the streets, scrapping it out in the
Salah says it doesn’t bother him. “I’m sure a lot of peo- local youth leagues around Nagrig until he was scouted
ple appreciate what I’m doing. I don’t really care about it. at 13 by Al Mokawloon, a team in Egypt’s top division. Al
Weak mentalities like to feel that. I don’t.” Mokawloon, which Salah refers to by its English name,
Arab Contractors, is based in Nasr City, a suburb of Cairo
Anyway, this will surely be the season his doubters are 82 miles south of Salah’s hometown. So every morning
converted. Crucially – highlights being to professional Salah would go to school at 7am, then leave after two
athletes as hymns to missionaries – he scores beautiful hours (the club gave him a permission slip) and walk a
goals. Take the one he scored against Manchester City mile past jasmine fields to a bus stop. There he boarded
in October. Salah receives the ball outside the penalty a microbus – a camper van crammed with three or even
area in a crowd of three opposition players, shrugs off four rows of seats – to nearby Basyoun. From Basyoun
one, rolls the ball past the other two with the sole of his he’d catch another to Tanta; from Tanta to Cairo’s bustling
boot, then surges into the box. You think he’ll do what Ramses Square; and finally a fourth to the training ground
he always does, which is shoot with his left – but no, he in Nasr City. “Half an hour, one hour, then two hours, then
beats the City centre-half with a jagged cutback and hits maybe half an hour or 45 minutes for the last one,” Salah
says, ticking off the transfers from memory.
“THAT’S MY GAME
SINCE I WAS YOUNG. Training itself lasted only a couple of hours, but Salah
would try to turn up early and stay late, starting the long
I GET THE BALL, journey home about 6pm. At the time, Al Mokawloon was
I AM COMING TO YOU. paying him a monthly salary of 125 EGP – roughly £6 –
which didn’t even cover a week’s bus fares, so his father,
I AM COMING TO YOU!” who owned a jasmine trading business, paid the rest.
So many journalists have tried to re-create Salah’s bus
journey that their dispatches could fill an essay collec-
tion. None capture what it must have been like: the gru-
elling monotony, the social isolation, all mixed up with
a 14-year-old’s daydreams of going pro. “I know when
we say nine hours this looks crazy, but I did it because
114 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
↓ → “YOU HAVE TWO CHOICES:
vintage shirt from tank top £635 TO TELL THE PEOPLE THAT
Melet Mercantile Saint Laurent by
Anthony Vaccarello THEY ARE RIGHT TO PUT YOU
shorts £405 ON A BENCH, OR TO PROVE
Hermès trousers £525
Maryam Nassir THEM WRONG. I NEEDED
vintage trousers TO PROVE THEM WRONG.”
Zadeh
sneakers stylist’s own I loved it,” Salah says. “I wanted to be where I am now, so I
Adidas didn’t feel that it was that hard.”
socks £15 for a Eventually, Salah impressed the coaches at Al
pack of three Mokawloon enough that they gave him a room at the train-
Adidas Originals ing ground, and by 17 he had broken into the first team.
In old footage you can see the glimpses of what he would
become – the quickness, the hunger. Then, in February
2012, a riot broke out at a stadium after an Egyptian league
game between Al Masry and Al Ahly in Port Said. Seventy-
four people were killed. In response to the disaster, the
Egyptian authorities suspended the league and ordered
that all games be played behind closed doors for two years,
and in the aftermath, Salah’s representatives secured a
transfer to Basel, one of the biggest clubs in Switzerland.
For Salah, arriving in Basel was like plunging into ice
water. “The weather’s cold, and you can’t speak English,
can’t speak the language. No one in the club spoke Arabic,”
Salah says. At first he couldn’t watch TV, read the news-
papers, or even order takeaway. “It was really hard. But
I needed to adapt to it, or go back. You don’t have a third
choice.” On the field, his talent did not require translation.
In two seasons, he helped Basel to back-to-back league
titles and earned the league’s player of the season award.
What happened next is one of fate’s curious what-if
moments. In the winter of 2014, Salah had an offer to join
Liverpool but instead accepted a move to Chelsea. It made
sense at the time: Chelsea was the more dominant team.
But the club was also stacked with star forwards and man-
aged by José Mourinho, a coach notorious for rarely rotat-
ing his starting line-up. “When I look back, [I had] bad
advice with the situation,” Salah says.
London was an even bigger change than Switzerland.
Soon after arriving, Magy gave birth to their first child,
Makka. Back home, Salah’s fame exploded. Then and now,
an Egyptian player signing for a top Premier League team
is virtually unheard of. But he struggled to get in the start-
ing line-up at Chelsea, often left out of the squad entirely.
Critics started saying that he’d moved too soon, that he
wasn’t suited for the more physical side of the Premier
League. Salah stopped reading the news. “It was so tough
for me, mentally. I couldn’t handle the pressure I had from
the media, coming from outside,” Salah says. “I was not
playing that much. I felt, ‘No, I need to go.’ ”
The following year, Chelsea sent Salah on loan to
Fiorentina. He enjoyed Italy, played well, and in 2015
moved to Roma. At this point, plenty of equally talented
players might have settled: OK, you had your shot at the
top, but this is your level. But Salah’s rejection at Chelsea
cracked something open within him, like a drill hitting
a brick wall. His motivation redoubled. “You have two
choices: to tell the people that they are right to put you on
116 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
the bench, or to prove them wrong,” Salah says. “I needed and psychological harm” to Salah and to Egypt.) Ramos
to prove them wrong.” said of the incident: “I didn’t want to speak because every-
thing is magnified. I see the play well, he grabs my arm
While he was still on the bench at Chelsea, Salah had first and I fell to the other side; the injury happened to
started lifting weights more, building his upper-body the other arm, and they said that I gave him a judo hold.”
strength. “I used to go every day because I knew I would
not play,” he says. (If you’ve seen Salah’s shirtless celebra- The injury ruled Salah out of the opening game of the
tions, or his Instagram, you know it worked. The guy’s abs 2018 World Cup. The tournament was only the third time
look like freshly baked dinner rolls.) He started getting Egypt had qualified, and the first in 28 years, but by the
deep into self-help books like Mark Manson’s The Subtle time of Egypt’s first game against Uruguay, Salah still
Art of Not Giving a F*ck, and bingeing YouTube videos by hadn’t recovered. “I cried on the bus, then I cried on the
success coaches like Tony Robbins and Zig Ziglar. “The one toilet before the game because I couldn’t play,” he says.
I think changed [me] a lot is Napoleon Hill,” Salah says. Egypt lost 2-0. Salah did play in the next two games, scor-
“He is one of the main guys who really talked about belief ing twice, but couldn’t prevent his team from going out.
in yourself. For me, every book after that takes from what
he said.” (Ironically, Hill, the self-help pioneer behind best- Salah has said that he has come to accept the injury.
sellers like 1937’s Think and Grow Rich, is now thought to “Injuries you can’t really control,” he says. “Everything
have largely fabricated tales of his own success.) happens for a reason, I believe, and you have to deal with
it.” In the end, he took strength from it. The following year
It’s easy to be cynical about self-help – be positive, believe Liverpool made it to the final again, and won.
in yourself – but for Salah, it’s clear that it really helped,
enough that talking to him now can sometimes feel like a S A L A H ’ S L I V E R P O O L C O N T R A C T is set to expire in the
motivational seminar. “The best thing you could have is a summer of 2023, at which point he will be a free agent.
serious conversation with yourself. Just get a coffee and Salah has frequently said he wants to stay; however, nego-
just sit like this and just ask yourself what you want,” he tiations with Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group
says. And: “Some people can’t face themselves properly. But (which also owns the Boston Red Sox) over a new contract
I have no problem with that. If I’m struggling, I just face are at an impasse over Salah’s salary demands – report-
myself and just feel where I am.” edly double his current deal, which would put him among
the best paid players in football. (Salah’s representatives
In Rome, Salah rented a separate house in the city say reports that Salah is currently paid £10 million per
year are inaccurate but otherwise would not comment on
“I’VE BEEN HERE FOR negotiations.) “I want to stay, but it’s not in my hands. It’s
MY FIFTH YEAR NOW. in their hands,” Salah says. “They know what I want. I’m
not asking for crazy stuff.” And besides, sewage plants and
I KNOW THE CLUB VERY WELL. ambulances don’t come cheap.
I LOVE THE FANS.
To Salah, it’s about more than the money. It’s about rec-
THE FANS LOVE ME.” ognition. “The thing is when you ask for something and
they show you they can give you something,” he says, they
and built a private practice pitch in his backyard so → should, “because they appreciate what you did for the club.
that he could work on his shooting outside of training. I’ve been here for my fifth year here now. I know the club
He started to work on his mind too. He practises both vintage tank top very well. I love the fans. The fans love me. But with the
meditation and visualisation every day, running through American Apparel administration, they have [been] told the situation. It’s in
the next match in detail, picturing both what he wants from L Train Vintage their hands.”
to happen and – because he read Michael Phelps does
it – what could go wrong. “Some situations you need to trousers £1,350 If Liverpool is unwilling to match his wage demands –
face before it happens, so when it happens you’ve already shorts £670 entirely possible, given FSG’s reluctance to pay superstar
experienced it,” Salah says. He started this mental routine Prada salaries both at Liverpool and at the Red Sox – there are
during his second season at Roma, which coincided with few clubs in world football who could. Barcelona is £1bn in
the best form of his career to that point. He scored 15 goals boots £130 the red and let their legendary striker Lionel Messi leave
and made 11 assists, leading the team to a runners-up Adidas on a free transfer last year. Real Madrid seemingly has its
spot, which ultimately led Liverpool to come calling again. sights on France striker Kylian Mbappe. There’s Paris Saint-
This time, he didn’t hesitate. Germain, with its limitless Qatari-backed financing, but
otherwise the only real contenders are the two Manchester
Still, there are moments that even visualisation can’t clubs or Chelsea, and a move to any one of them would
prepare you for. In Salah’s case, it was Liverpool’s 2018 torch Salah’s status as a Liverpool legend. (I will confess
Champions League final against Real Madrid. The here that I have been a Liverpool fan for 20 years. Yes,
game should have been the fairytale ending to Salah’s I asked him to stay. No, it didn’t help.)
record-breaking first season back in the Premier League.
Instead, in the 25 th minute, Madrid’s no-nonsense Salah knows his own worth, and that his next deal may
defender Sergio Ramos dragged Salah to the ground in be his last chance to make big money. There is also brand
an armlock, dislocating his shoulder. Salah left the field Salah to consider: He has sponsorship deals with Adidas,
in tears. Liverpool, visibly deflated, lost 3-1. (A lawyer Oppo, Uber, and Pepsi, each paying handsomely for his
threatened to sue Ramos for 1bn euros, citing “physical image. (MBC, the Arabic TV channel, reportedly paid Salah
£500,000 to interview him that day at the town hall.)
He turns 30 in June. Conventional wisdom has it
that footballers peak at about that age, although recent
advances in sports science are changing that: Zlatan
Ibrahimovic, for example, is still scoring for AC Milan at
40. “It’s not just Zlatan,” Salah says. “[Cristiano] Ronaldo is
36, [Karim] Benzema, 34. All the top players at the moment,
[Robert] Lewandowski, Messi, all of them are 34, 35.”
118 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
“I WANT TO BE THE BEST He gazes out of the window of the town hall, hands in his
PLAYER IN THE WORLD. pockets, shrugs. “Sometimes I feel it’s just politics.”
BUT I WILL HAVE A GOOD He still has other ambitions. “I want to qualify for
LIFE EVEN IF I DON’T the World Cup again, I want to win the African Cup
[of Nations],” he says. This January, Salah was planning
WIN THE BALLON D’OR. to lead his country out onto the pitch in 2021’s AFCON
SOMETIMES I FEEL tournament in Cameroon. Pre-tournament, Egypt was one
of the favourites, largely because of Salah.
IT’S JUST POLITICS.”
He wants to be a good father. Makka and Kayan are set-
At his house, Salah has built his own recovery suite, → tled in England; Makka already speaks English in a Scouse
including a cryotherapy bath and hyperbaric chamber – coat price on request accent. Occasionally he posts pictures of them together:
things you’d normally find only at a cutting-edge training kicking a ball in the yard, teaching Makka chess, the two
facility or treatment centre. “I have everything at home. It’s Gucci of them dressing up as Disney characters. “She is really
a hospital,” Salah says. “He’s like a sponge for information. competitive,” he says, laughing. “She tells me, ‘By the way,
He has an incessant hunger for being better,” Klopp says. vintage tank top from I am more famous than you, because when we go out peo-
“He’s never satisfied. He’s so attentive to what we are ask- Melet Mercantile ple want to take a picture with me.’ ”
ing of him in how it helps the team. But alongside that,
his commitment to individual improvement is remark- trousers £375 To his kids, Salah’s fame is normal, the baseline. I was in
able. Whether it be the fitness and conditioning coaches Winnie New York Salah’s box during Liverpool’s 4-0 home win over Arsenal,
or the nutritionist or whoever, he looks for those small and the kids weren’t even watching the game: Makka went
margins everywhere.” sneakers £70 off to play in the kids’ area and Kayan sat in a high chair,
Adidas throwing fruit around and giggling joyously, while 50,000
Salah rarely speaks publicly, and never about politics. fans sang their father’s name.
This, you feel, is partly self-preservation: Salah’s visibility socks £15 for a
in Egypt and the Middle East means anything political he pack of three There is a popular idea that Chelsea made a mistake
says or does will immediately become international news. Adidas Originals in selling Salah, and that he deserved a better chance to
In the Middle East and online, coverage of him can some- prove himself. (He wasn’t the only one. Manchester City’s
times verge on moral policing: when Salah posted a picture boots £130 Kevin De Bruyne, a strong contender for the world’s best
on Instagram of his family celebrating Christmas, it led to Adidas midfielder, is also a Chelsea reject.) This version of events,
a torrent of abuse. But controversy is a distraction, and so however, misses the point: being rejected turned out to be
he has tried to remove that from his life too. He doesn’t go grooming by larry the best thing that ever happened to him. “When you feel
out partying, or often play video games, instead preferring to king at a-frame that your dream is slipping away, you want to do everything
stay at home with his children. “People really change with the to get it,” Salah says. “I don’t want to be a victim. I don’t
fame and the money, so I’m just trying not to do the same, to agency using larry want to be like, ‘He went to Chelsea and they didn’t give
stay steady,” he says. This, too, is all deliberate, an investment king haircare. him a chance.’ I don’t care about that. Whatever it takes to
in ensuring he can hit his maximum potential and stay there succeed, I will do it.”
as long as possible. tailoring by michelle
warner. set design Perhaps that’s why the episodes with the thief and the
I N L A T E N O V E M B E R , a few days after our meeting, by sean thomson @ homeless person resonated so much with people: everyone
France Football held the annual Ballon d’Or awards in the magnet agency. deserves a second chance. There’s something comforting
Paris. The black-tie gala, attended by the elite players in the idea that we can all unlock the potential that exists
from around the world, proceeded as it always does: produced by north six inside of us, even when others don’t see it. That all that
Messi won. Salah was seventh, a slight both inexplicable europe. photographed stands between us and outrageous fortune is hard work.
and expected. Salah spent the evening in Monaco, where “People are always happy with where they are. People
he was due to receive the Golden Foot, football’s equiv- at holland hall. have their routine or their comfort zone or whatever they
alent of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But want to call it. They don’t like to change. That’s who we are
Liverpool had a match the next day, so he left early and as humans,” Salah says. “People suffer for years because
got on a plane home. Magy accepted the award for him. they don’t want to change. But for me, like: no. I needed
to change.”
He says that individual awards no longer motivate him.
“I’m not really bothered by that.” That doesn’t mean he If that sounds like the kind of pop philosophy you’ll find
isn’t still determined to become the world’s best player: in any self-help book, that’s because it is. But how many of
he is. Spending time with Salah, it’s clear that he has recon- us read those books on the secrets of success and actually
figured his entire life around that singular goal. follow through? Who spends nine hours on a bus, just to
play football? Salah did. He spent those hours dreaming
“If you asked me if this was a drive for me to be here? of this moment, and now that it has arrived, he’s going to
Yeah, of course. I can’t really lie and say honestly I didn’t savour it for all it’s worth.
think about it. No, I think about it. I want to be the best
player in the world. But I will have a good life even if I don’t “I sacrificed everything I could just to be sitting here,
win [the Ballon d’Or]. My life is OK, everything is fine.” now,” he says. “I gave everything. All my life was just
for football.”
He smiles that big smile, and the sun pours in through
the window, and maybe it’s the chandeliers or the golden
room we’re in, but it’s like he’s glowing.
He needs to get to training. Even now, he likes to be there
early and last to leave. Salah says his goodbyes to the film
crew and heads out into the street, where he climbs into the
back of a plush BMW sent just for him. Several passersby
do a double-take, turning to each other as if to say, Was
that…? But it’s too late, he’s already gone.
oliver franklin-wallis is a writer and journalist.
120 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
The BY HANIF
unstoppable ABDURRAQIB
guard captained one PHOTOGRAPHS BY
of the best teams in SHANIQWA JARVIS
basketball history.
Two years after STYLED BY
that dynasty fell MOBOLAJI DAWODU
apart, he’s willing
the Golden State
Warriors towards
another title run –
and underlining
his claim as one
of the game’s
all-time greats.
122 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
the Year form, even more cerebral than he was
before. Stephen Curry’s job, so far, has been con-
siderably easier.
In a green room inside the arena, Curry set-
tles into a chair. He’s older now, 33, but doesn’t
look worn down. There’s still a childlike quality
to him – he’s a thoughtful speaker, and there’s
often a grin creeping along the edges of his
mouth, like he’s just heard a secret. He’s also
stronger than he was, no longer the young
player with a jersey sliding off of his shoulders
in his college years or his first few seasons in
the NBA. The muscles in his arms cut a clear
outline through his black hoodie as he puts
a hand on his face to ponder a question. He
holds this pose for several seconds after I ask
him about dynasties, and the challenges of
reshaping a team for another run, after over a
decade in the league and just two seasons after
C A L M T H A T hovers over the streets around the It seemed that he came to a realisation in that it seemed like the torch was being passed.
Chase Centre in San Francisco late on a night
when no basketball is being played is intoxicat- moment. He was the only star left, fighting back “Well, as many good breaks as we got, we
ing. That is, until you walk inside. That same
calm gives way to an eeriness – the space is cav- against the inevitable depletion of his team. got kind of the same bad breaks,” he begins.
ernous and labyrinthian, hallways collapsing
into hallways. A corner light flickers in a series And he was. The Warriors lost the final. Durant “The injuries that took us to a pretty crazy free
of hiccups. Music echoes from some undeter-
mined distance. Following the sounds, I’m was off to Brooklyn in the off-season. The pan- fall right before the pandemic. And it’s weird
led to a kind of makeshift subterranean gym.
Laughter rises from a group of handlers, cir- demic threw the league off course. Thompson because if you look at it in those two years, it
cled around Stephen Curry, who’s dressed as if
he’s just finished a workout. At his feet rest two tore an Achilles before he even returned after was tough to be patient and tough for me, just
12kg barbells branded with the Golden State
Warriors logo. A Warriors towel rests on his the knee ligament injury. Curry injured his staying locked in and motivated.”
head. Drake’s Certified Lover Boy ricochets off
the walls. hand. There were those who said it was a good He pauses briefly, before running towards
It’s here, in the belly of the Warriors’ arena, run. We got a half-decade of greatness. No a closing thought: “And for us, that’s been the
that Stephen Curry has diligently remade him-
self and his team. And glimpsing him in this dynasty can last forever. mental [block we’ve had to] unlock – stay-
private lair, just before our interview, is like
witnessing a superhero’s origin story. Except Yet there’s something remarkable brewing ing sharp, staying fresh, and appreciating
it’s the sequel, the story of his rebirth. Our
hero is better than before, the mythology more in San Francisco once again. The night before, the climb back to hopefully get back to the
grandiose. In an instant, there’s a song shift.
Once the beat drops on “You Only Live Twice”, there was an NBA game here. The Raptors came top, and personally, I’ve just been riding that
Curry is newly energised, grinning under-
neath the shadow of the towel, gesturing with to town and left with their 15th loss out of the wave. Understand if you’re in this league long
his hands, shaking his head on beat. The song
serves as an appropriate anthem for a player last 17 games they’ve played on Golden State’s enough, hopefully you’ll experience many dif-
in the throes of a second NBA life, making the
impossible look easy in new ways. home floor. Curry didn’t have the kind of game ferent things, many different narratives, and
The first era of the modern Warriors dynasty spectators have been accustomed to seeing him you have to not reinvent your game, but just
was staggering: three championships and
five straight finals. The 73-win season. Curry put together this season – he managed just 12 reinvent your focus on what’s the challenge
breaking the single-season three-point record,
then breaking it again (and again). Then things points on 2-10 shooting – but the Warriors still ahead of you each year. And I feel like that’s
began to crumble. There’s an enduring image
from late in the third quarter of the 2019 NBA won, relatively comfortably. This was a depar- been a shock to the system these last two years.”
finals. The Warriors are down to the Toronto
Raptors in the series, 3-2. But in the game ture from last season, when at times it felt like The place the team finds itself in suits Curry.
itself, they’re up by three. Kevin Durant had
gone out with an injury the game before, and in order for the Warriors to be in a game, Curry To have his squad written off, only to bring
there is Klay Thompson, barely able to walk,
being carried off of the court with what would had to maintain an almost unsustainable level. them roaring back as a newer, potentially better
be diagnosed as a torn knee ligament. A replay
showed Curry slamming the ball in frustration, Almost unsustainable because, version of their old selves. It all fits
a rare crack in his usually placid demeanour.
through the season, he somehow ←← the overarching Curry mythology –
managed to sustain it. Those hero- that of the perpetual underdog. It’s
PREVIOUS PAGE
ics were both miraculous and a bit coat £2,445 significantly more difficult to sell
concerning. It felt, at times, like hoodie £530 that narrative now than it was when
one last flourish before the flame trousers £620 Curry was a scrawny kid firing
burned out entirely. Curry, drag- away at North Carolina’s Davidson
ging what some considered to be shoes £130 Wildcats, stitching together an
a fading team along, unconcerned Fear of God unexpected run to the Elite Eight.
with the toll it might be taking on More difficult than when he was
his body. ring (on left hand, battling ankle injuries early in his
throughout), his own NBA career. Indeed, the idea of the
But this is a new era of Warriors underdog today seems almost an
basketball. As of now, Curry and the ring (on right
hand, throughout)
£14,000
Established
Warriors have the best record in the → invention, just as Michael Jordan
NBA, and they’ve made it look both jacket £440 imagined slights and pulled foes
easy and fun. A youthful energy Homme Plissé out of thin air. Curry smirks a bit
has been infused into the core of Issey Miyake when I ask, incredulously, about his
reliable stars. Young players like commitment to this underdog sta-
Jordan Poole have come on leaps sweater £810 tus. “I’ve failed at explaining what
and bounds. Still-youthful semi- Saint Laurent by it feels like,” he says. “But I still
Anthony Vaccarello
vets like Andrew Wiggins have trousers £575 carry that 1,000 percent, because I
further solidified roles as effective Dunhill have a long-term memory of every-
two-way options. Draymond Green watch £5,900 thing that it took and everything
is back in his Defensive Player of Hublot I’ve been through to get here.”
124 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
C U R R Y ’ S C O A C H A T Davidson, Bob McKillop, is does, he’s speaking of both then and now – around how he has taken care of his body
one of the few people who can remember when a game that is still evolving. The beauty that and improved it. He’s still gaining muscle –
Curry truly was an underdog. He was a three- has always been present in his game still he reportedly added 2.5kg in the off-season – as
star recruit who was all but ignored by Division remains. Not just the shots themselves, the well as refining his power, his speed, and his
I colleges, most notably Virginia Tech – the alma miracle heaves over a forest of arms, or the quickness. That more muscular frame, Kerr
mater of his NBA-famous father, Dell, and the wide-open effortless flicks that look good even says, has changed Curry’s ability to be danger-
school Curry had eyed for himself. Davidson was while still ascending. But also the beauty in ous from everywhere. “From when I arrived here
one of the only schools to offer Curry a schol- Curry’s movement. His is a game predicated seven years ago, there’s been a huge difference,”
arship, a choice the programme made because on a series of small escapes, running through Kerr tells me over the phone. “He’s built his
of his resilience, McKillop says. “We went to slivers of space in hopes of finding some larger body in a way that impacts how he can finish at
see him play in Las Vegas the summer before sliver of space at the other end. All of those the rim, how he can get into the paint, and get
his senior year,” McKillop tells me. “He played things are hallmarks of a beautiful game. But through screens. And it’s also helped him with
in one of the auxiliary gyms, not the main gym. there’s also a renewed physicality to what defence. He’s an excellent defender. This stigma
There were very few people at the game, and Curry does on the court, a renewed commit- has remained from early in his career that he’s
even fewer coaches. I felt pretty good knowing ment to defence – something that haunted his a weak defender, and I would just ask anyone
that only a couple of guys were watching him.” play in the earlier parts of his career. to watch him night to night.” This bears out sta-
McKillop waits a beat before the reveal. “And tistically. At the time of writing, Curry is in the
he was awful. He threw the ball into the stands, Curry tells me that there’s a potential delu- middle of the greatest defensive season he’s ever
he dropped passes, he dribbled off his foot, he sion he’s in the throes of: the belief that he can had, posting his highest defensive rating since
missed shots. But never once during that game still get better, even though he knows there’s he’s entered the league (97.8) and also averaging
did he blame an official, or point a finger at a a point where he’ll say that but won’t actually a career-high 5.6 rebounds per game.
teammate. He was always cheering from the feel it. He’s not there yet, though, he claims.
bench, he looked in the eyes of his coaches, and “There’s a level of insecurity that comes with Despite being one of the game’s greatest
he never flinched. That stuck with me.” my personal experience of how I get ready for superstars, Curry remains something of an
a season,” Curry reveals. “I understand where outlier in today’s NBA, situated largely outside
McKillop is talking, in part, about the intan- the bar is at and I’ve got to keep raising it. So the fraternity of stars that operate with a pub-
gibles that Curry has always had. But there are that level of insecurity drives me, because it’s lic off-court kinship. That’s partly due to the
parts of his game he’s reinvented, too, just as three months where you’re thinking: how do aforementioned underdog status that defined
anyone does who plays long enough and is you get better?” his youth and college career. He didn’t play in
committed to playing longer. Curry still refers high-profile school athletics teams or build
to himself as a “late bloomer,” and when he In the words of his current coach, Steve Kerr, up the kind of relationships and rivalries that
much of Curry’s constant evolution revolves can define players before they even enter the
league. This hasn’t prevented Curry from form-
ing certain narratives with his competitors, of
course. His prolonged contest with LeBron
James is now one of the great sports duels of
our era, one that added yet another chapter
late last season, when James hit a three-pointer
over Curry’s outstretched arms in the dwin-
dling moments of the play-in game that would
send the Lakers into the playoffs.
Curry looks upon the James rivalry almost
with a sense of wonder, sometimes reminisc-
ing about the early stages of their relation-
ship. During the 2008 NCAA Tournament,
it was James, then in his fifth season with
the Cavs, who took a pilgrimage to Detroit
to see Curry play in person. “I was a sopho-
more in college and LeBron was coming to my
games!” Curry says with a sense of lingering
disbelief. “I actually still have the jersey he
gave me. He signed a jersey for me. I think
that was November of my junior year. On
my wall at my parents’ house in Charlotte,
it’s still there. And he wrote it to me, called
me the king of basketball in North Carolina.
So I guess it’s like the corny idols-become-
rivals thing.”
He pauses here, almost as if he’s stepping
outside of the cloud of whimsy and nostalgia,
and back into the reality of their competitive
push and pull, the tensions that have waxed
and waned throughout their clashes. He
shrugs, matter-of-factly. “But it’s real, though.”
C U R R Y C O U N T S C H R I S P A U L as a mentor, too,
but is largely ambivalent about socialising with
anyone except his teammates, “my guys,” as he
126 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
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sweater-vest £410
Wooyoungmi
shorts £390
Bianca Saunders
sneakers £130
Curry Brand
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watch £24,600
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calls them – players he has spent the majority of the team’s championship era, there was a and some connections and he started to pique
of his career around, building the culture of a long-suffering but devoted legion that slogged everybody’s interest,” Curry says. “Our conversa-
single franchise. Which leads to another exam- their way through the team’s lean years, which tions in the locker room started to change drasti-
ple of Curry’s uniqueness in today’s NBA. The stretched right up until Curry first showed up cally from rap albums and cars and all that type
player who stays with one team for his entire in town. The team built a consistent core of of stuff to like: You see that company’s IPO? And
career has begun to feel like a relic, given how players through the draft, while also building then obviously the awareness and exposure to
many players hop from team to team pursuing a culture of basketball that was both winning what’s in our backyard, Silicon Valley – he was
championships, or simply become late-career and thrilling. But there have been changes. the first to really open my eyes to what was pos-
journeymen, playing their final, largely inef- Most notably, there was the transplanting of sible in that arena.”
fective years in unfamiliar confines. There are the team from Oakland back to San Francisco,
certainly those who would rather forget Patrick which Curry admits has been a bit of a chal- Now Curry has his own media company,
Ewing wandering through his final two seasons, lenge. He loved Oakland, he says. The team’s Unanimous, which, among other things, is
with Seattle and Orlando. Hakeem Olajuwon identity was anchored there. “It feels a little bit responsible for producing the miniature-golf
winding down with Toronto. Curry has signed like I got traded, but within the same organi- show Holey Moley. “There’s so much opportu-
on for four more years with the Warriors, which sation,” he tells me. He and the team are trying nity [in Hollywood] because doors are open,”
would take him to 38. In theory, he could go to build a new legacy, a sort of Warriors 2.0 in he says. “There’s so much talent that can step
the route of Ewing or Olajuwon, but it seems San Francisco. Yet another opportunity for a into those rooms and deserve to be there, stay
unlikely. He’s embedded himself in the commu- second life. there, and have successful careers. And you
nity here. “When I got drafted to Golden State, can’t really quantify it right now, but you can
my grandma had no idea what city it was in,” The team’s location in the Bay has provided obviously have those checkpoints like, ‘Are we
Curry says with a laugh. “Everyone on the East some opportunities for Curry to build a life away making a true impact?’ And, ‘How is that going
Coast thinks LA is all of California.” from basketball. He’s used his company SC30 to to weave into everything that I do?’”
invest in tech start-ups like the travel platform
Upon his arrival, Curry instantly fell in love Snaptravel. This entry into tech, he says, was To make a more tangible and immediate
with the team, the area, its fans. Contrary to first orchestrated by Andre Iguodala, during his impact, in 2019 Curry launched a nonprofit
the belief that every Golden State Warriors first run with the Warriors. “When he came from called Eat. Learn. Play. with his wife, Ayesha,
fan arrived just in time to bask in the heyday Denver in 2013, he came with passion behind it focusing on childhood nutrition, education,
and physical activity. In March 2021, the
organisation delivered meals to 24,000 stu-
dents and their families to make up for the
meals those students would no longer be get-
ting at school due to pandemic limitations.
Elsewhere in Curry’s universe, SC30 has been
responsible for launching Howard University’s
men’s and women’s golf tournaments, and his
Curry Brand has poured funds into Harlem’s
famous Rucker Park, investing in programmes
to support young basketball players in the
area with clinics and equipment.
There is a thread that runs through all of
this: an obsession with uplifting the underdog,
or the underrepresented, or – a word Curry
often uses – the “underrated.”
As we talk, it becomes clear that that idea is
part of his DNA. His book club, which carries
the Underrated moniker, highlights books about
protagonists overcoming personal struggles or
ones by authors he feels have been overlooked
in their own right. Cole Brown’s Greyboy, about
navigating the sometimes tricky boundaries
between race and class, was one such book club
pick; Brown is also working with Unanimous
on bringing other projects to the screen.
Curry lights up again when talking about his
Underrated Tour, which travels the country
offering a platform to mid-level high-school
basketball prospects. The players who might, for
example, play in an auxiliary gym during the big
AAU tournaments. The players who might have
only one or two coaches locked in on them.
(“When I was a sophomore, junior, in high
school, I wouldn’t even have been invited to
my own camp,” he says, shaking his head.)
When Curry’s aims and investments are
all laid out, they can seem a bit like a sneaker
advertisement, spoken over some swelling
instrumental. Which might be more beautiful
than inspirational at face value. But his ambi-
tions only come to life through the connective
←
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Dries Van Noten
trousers price on
request Tom Ford
hat £61
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tissue that binds them together. None of it is “Having true for Jordan Poole, who summons a specific
promising that the next Stephen Curry will be memory of Curry’s greatness: his infamous
game-winning pull-up three against Oklahoma
unearthed through a camp, or through a kid someone of City in 2016. “I grew up in Milwaukee, so I was
having access to a meal or a court to play on. mostly getting Eastern Conference games
But these initiatives are all asking the question on television,” Poole says. “That was the rare
night I got a Western Conference game, and it
of what might happen if enough openings were Stephenʼs didn’t disappoint.”
offered. What might happen if enough young
For Poole, the transition from spectator to
people ran through one space to get to a larger, stature take participant has been surreal. Curry, Thompson,
more rewarding space. Yet another manifesta- Green, and Iguodala were all part of “a
tion of Curry’s game. world-changing dynasty,” he says — one that
he’s now fighting to keep alive. And he’s doing
After I ask about how the responsibilities of you under so by looking to Curry’s leadership. “Having
star athletes have evolved through the decades, someone of his stature take you under his
wings, someone who has so much experience
he brings up his father. “I had a front-row seat his wing on the court and so much knowledge in life,
to watch my dad go through it for 16 years,” pays huge dividends,” he says. “He opened my
Curry tells me. Dell Curry played the most eyes so much to the game of basketball. He does
a great job of demonstrating patience with the
prominent parts of his career in Charlotte, and pays huge team, especially the young guys.”
in the late ’90s he started a foundation that
Curry, for his part, dreams of a future five
built computer-learning centres in deprived dividends.” years from now where Poole is an all-star,
neighbourhoods. And just as Stephen was Kuminga is an all-defensive player, and
courtside at games, he was also required to be Wiseman is a candidate for Most Valuable
Player (MVP). He and Green will be fulfilled
hands-on in the off-court aspects of his father’s JORDAN POOLE then, he says.
career. “Me and my siblings used to go volun-
But there is still the business of winning
teer and spend a lot of time in those centres,” games, of building a legacy, of conquering
doubters, real and invented. There are still
he says. “And I got to see what happens when those who insist that Curry has ruined the
game — that he’s inspired a trend toward out-
a community is galvanised, gets fundraising, of their core players. With this in mind, Kerr rageously long-range threes that should only be
attempted by a generational talent. These cries
gets places for kids to o spend time and develop highlights Curry’s shift in leadership. “Well, might seem unique to someone too young to
remember those who insisted that Steve Nash
themselves and invest themselves. I saw it on he’s never been a yell-and-scream type of guy,” was ruining the game, or that Allen Iverson
was ruining the game before him, and so on.
that level. And unless you saw it up close, in Kerr says. “He likes pulling guys aside and giv- The miracle in all of these players, for me and
for a lot of short, small kids I’ve known, is that
person, you didn’t really hear about it.” ing advice quietly. But now, he’s much more they were operating in a game not entirely built
for them and yet extracting all the magic they
Curry is considering the shift in platform likely to speak up in front of the team than he could from it. Sure, Curry is bigger now than he
once was, but he’s still a fairly small guard who
and ability to spread the good word. There was was five years ago. He’s one of the oldest guys on has perfected his ability to not only play well,
but play with flair. To both wow and frustrate
less than a decade between Dell’s retirement the team, and he recognises the responsibility opponents, as Nash and Iverson did.
(2002) and Stephen’s entry into the league that comes with that.” And there are kids somewhere shooting 35ft
shots before even attempting to perfect the
(2009), but in that small window, technology Curry is something of a master of team midrange, and kids pulling off dribble moves
with their heads down, completely missing
changed. The potential for exposure grew, and dynamics, having had to grow into a leader open teammates. But there’s something else
that hovers in my mind as I exit the arena.
with it players’ profiles soared. In turn, they with little in the way of a road map. When he We’ve had Stephen Curry for a good, long,
thrilling time, and we’re not going to have him
gained more leverage, in part leading to the came to Golden State, there were veterans, forever. Even if he plays out his latest extension,
four seasons can come and go in an instant.
modern era of renewed player empowerment. but there wasn’t a winning culture. Curry, And so, with any luck, there are also some kids
out there, short and scrawny, watching the
“I’m still in the process of building and trying Green, and Thompson had to figure out their blueprint Stephen Curry is mapping out in real
time: how to dominate what isn’t meant for
and doing,” he says. “Not to sound too noble, own leadership styles, but also how to pass you, until it is meant for you alone.
but I really respect and appreciate what’s hap- down what they learned when the time came. hanif abdurraqib is the author of A Little
Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black
pened in my life in terms of what basketball And that time is now. The team is pursuing Performance and the recipient of a 2021
MacArthur Foundation grant.
has provided me and my family. Opportunities another title while its best players simultane-
I never thought would be possible. And it hasn’t ously cling to their prime and condition their
always been perfect in terms of how I’ve tried young and talented teammates to keep up.
to start things. And there’s been a It’s an alarming balance, one that
lot of different transitions through → might be easier if Golden State’s
a lot of phases of the early days of jacket £4,850 centrepieces were in the twilight
doing this and taking ownership of it. pants £2,370 of their careers, playing through
But, I know it’s going to be worth it.” Brunello Cucinelli farewell tours.
T H E G O L D E N S T A T E Warriors cur- vest £195 When Curry considers the
rently find themselves in a unique Mr. Saturday construction of the team and his
transitional phase: the team is get- current responsibilities within
ting older and younger at the same sunglasses the Warriors ecosystem, he grins.
time. With Curry and Thompson price on request “Well, it’s also weird because
Billy Reid x Krewe when we won our first champi-
and Iguodala and Green all now hair by yusef onship, in 2015, Jordan Poole was
in their 30s, they’ve furnished the wright. skin by 15 years old,” he says. “Jonathan
next generation of their roster with hee soo kwon using Kuminga and Moses Moody were
players like Poole, James Wiseman, dior backstage face like freshmen in high school, and
Jonathan Kuminga, and Moses & body foundation. now they’re here. It’s weird to think
tailoring by yelena
Moody. They aren’t in rebuild travkina. set design they were watching us like we were
mode, and their best players still by dylan lynch. almost basketball gods.” He laughs,
seem to have a lot left in the tank, and then offers an accepting shrug.
but they are mindful of continuity produced by north “And now they’re here helping us
and how to remain in contention six. photographed do it again.”
when the sun sets on the careers at chase centre,
home of the golden This specific nostalgia rings
state warriors.
130 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
FEBRUARY 2022 GQ 133
B E G I N S A T once. In the very dribbling across the opposition’s goal line. He is, in this way,
first innings of his very first like LeBron James bringing the ball up the court, shooting
start last season, Shohei threes, dunking over defenders, and swatting layups off
Ohtani does the thing that the glass at the other end of the court. That is, defying the
now distinguishes him prescribed limits of conventional positions, spacing, and
among, frankly, all baseball skill so overwhelmingly that it makes us question whether
players ever. In the top half the game’s ideas about who should play where and in what
of the innings, Ohtani-the- capacity are wrong – have always been wrong.
pitcher eases his way into
2021 with a few 100mph- When the Summer of Shohei draws to an end, Ohtani
plus fastballs and three is presented with a unanimous MVP award (rare) and the
quick outs. Then, in the bot- Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award (rarer still).
tom half, Ohtani-the-hitter launches the first pitch he sees He is one of the few things in the US, then, that people can
451 feet into the stands, becoming the first starting pitcher seem to agree on. But more than that, he is the surest sign in
to hit a home run in an American League baseball game a generation that the game may have a player – and a whole
since 1972. In just half an hour, then, the full breadth of the new way of playing – to bring baseball back from the brink.
spectacle of Major League Baseball’s first pitching-and-hit-
ting two-way phenom since the towering Babe Ruth. S H O H E I O H T A N I I S I N the cushioned cockpit of an electric
The Los Angeles Angels superstar grows more dominant boat that’s cruising the man-made waterways off Newport
on the pitcher’s mound all summer, supported in part by the Beach, California. He is in all black – black Asics sneakers;
offense (or batting) that he himself generates. As a result, black Hugo Boss sweatpants and sweatshirt; black Oakley
he becomes the first player in baseball history to appear sunglasses; and a black Hugo Boss hat, worn backwards.
in the All-Star game as both a starting pitcher and a lead Black that matches his matte black all-electric Tesla Model
hitter. In his home country of Japan, where he was born, X. Black that lengthens his broad and 6ft 4in frame, a frame
raised, and revered before he jumped to the US four years so perfectly, hybrid-ly engineered for pitching for power,
ago, the public broadcasting network, NHK, televises all of hitting for power, and running for speed that baseball hall
his games, employing in some broadcasts a special Ohtani of famer Chipper Jones called it “one of the best baseball
cam that follows him at all times, allowing viewers to track bodies I’ve ever seen…. he’s an Adonis.”
his every home run, head scratch, and cup adjustment.
A 7pm East Coast US game starts at 9am in Japan. A 7pm He is 27 years old and has a young, lineless face, made
LA game starts at noon. Daily Shohei from halfway around
the world, so ubiquitous it’s like the weather. What we wit-
nessed during the Summer of Shohei is Ohtani becoming
one of the rarest things in sport: an athlete who is capable,
in any given crack of the bat, of producing something no
one has seen with their own eyes before. It feels so natural
to watch the biggest and most talented kid on the field
doing everything well that it only underscores how rare
it is for a pitcher-slugger to ascend to the highest level
of baseball. How improbable it is to excel at one baseball
thing – let alone the two most highly valued skills in the
game: surgical power pitching and fearsome power hitting.
Shohei is, in this way, like Lionel Messi weaving box to box
with the ball at his feet, beating six or eight defenders, and
134 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
younger by an indiscriminate grin and a high-pitched then, had been selected. The aperture was tight. Life was ←←
laugh. On the field, he makes clear that barrelling a baseball contained to the Sapporo dorms and the Sapporo Dome –
500 feet or watching a batter recoil at one of his pitches is, and it was a life of glorious baseball monasticism. OPENING PAGES
in fact, more than any other emotion, fun. He often can’t AND OPPOSITE
help but smile when he does something incredible. And When we arrived at Newport Beach harbour, Shohei
occasionally apologises to opponents, with genuine sheep- took photos with his phone of some luxury yachts moored PA G E
ish deference, when he does something so extraordinary at the dock. There was wonder on his face, some innocent
that it surprises even himself. There are compilation videos chuckles, as though encountering conspicuous displays of vest £179
of his countless feats, but also of Shohei just picking up recreational wealth were still novel. The marina abutted shirt £95
rubbish off the field and in the dugout, evidence to the fans Balboa Island, the chicest part of Newport Beach, home Polo Ralph Lauren
who make the videos that he’s “just a great human.” to the banana stand that inspired Arrested Development
and the waterfront lifestyle that inspired The O.C. There mock turtleneck £22
Shohei talks to English speakers primarily through his were University of Southern California flags hanging Lands’ End
interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who is also his 24/7 right from every other balcony. There were Land Rovers and
hand, and, on the boat today, at his left hand. There’s a Mercedes and golf buggies. There were streets named for trousers from
pattern to our exchanges. I say something, Shohei under- precious gems. The sun was hot, the hills were burning, ABC Signature
stands some, Ippei translates the rest. Shohei draws in a precipitation felt like a distant, dreamy memory. We were
sharp inhalation as he considers questions with the full a long way from the enormous ice floe of Hokkaid¯o. Costume
battery of his brain– then says something that makes
Ippei chuckle. It’s a warm game of telephone. He hasn’t As Shohei boarded the boat, which belongs to Nez Balelo,
done something like this before, and it maybe feels novel Shohei’s agent and our captain for the day, the top step
to put one’s lived life into (translated) words. I get the dipped a nice plunking dip and the empty boat rolled.
sense that he follows most of what I’m saying, while my “Whoa!” Shohei exclaimed.
entirely untrained ears understand almost none of what
he does, save the occasional yakyu¯ (baseball) and Ichiro- “Careful…” Balelo exhaled through his teeth before smil-
san, another Japanese baseball star who also played in ing. “Last thing we need is you slipping.”
Japan and the US.
Shohei has played his first four seasons with the Angels
Shohei was from his earliest age what’s known in Japan on a series of contracts that have, much like the rookie-year
as a yakyu¯ sho¯nen – a kid who eats, sleeps, and breathes contracts of some top players in the NBA, felt like an inex-
baseball. He grew up in O¯shu¯, Iwate Prefecture, a region of plicable steal. The word rookie as applied to Japanese stars
rolling mountains and farmland. “Way out there,” Shohei who migrate to the majors has always been a misnomer.
says. “Countryside. Middle of nowhere.” The equivalent in Hideo Nomo was 26 when he arrived. Ichiro Suzuki was 27.
Japan of growing up in the Scottish Highlands. His dad Hideki Matsui was 28. Yu Darvish was 25. They were multi-
played baseball in the Japanese Industrial League – for year All-Stars in Japan. MVPs in all cases. Shohei made the
the car plant where he and Shohei’s mother worked – and move at 23. But had he waited until he was 25, he would’ve
coached Shohei’s junior team. At the youth level, games in been regarded as a free agent (ie. free to be paid anything;
Japan begin with players removing their caps and bowing ie. free to be paid hundreds of millions of dollars). By jump-
to their coach, their hosts, the fans, and then the field. (A ing to the States when he did, though, there were complex
tradition that adds context to those videos of Shohei clear- restrictions in place by the MLB that basically made him
ing his cathedral of litter.) Shohei attended one of the top available for pennies on the dollar, which meant every team
baseball high schools in the country and experienced his in the majors could play along in the sweepstakes and make
first real national attention as an 18-year-old when he was their pitch. Shohei ultimately chose the Angels for what he
clocked on TV throwing a 100mph fastball to another teen- calls “a little connection… it was just a feeling more than
ager who looks in the instant like he’s just seen the future: anything else – the vibe, the connection.”
his, not playing baseball; this kid on the mound, making it
somewhere very far. Shohei didn’t really feel the palpable transition from one
life to another on the flight to the US, he says, but rather
After flirting with jumping to the US while still in when he first met his teammates at training in Arizona: “I
his teens, Shohei signed with the Japanese pro league’s felt like my lifelong dream was really starting up.” The scene
Hokkaido¯ Nippon-Ham Fighters when they agreed to let in Arizona was frenzied. Rare are the rookie prospects who
him try playing both ways (something no team in Japan are expected to immediately deliver on such sizzling hype.
or the US had been scouting him for at the time). During
his five years with the Fighters, Shohei became the Nippon
Professional Baseball league’s star. A most valuable player
(MVP). A Japan Series champion. A future world beater.
The Fighters are based in Sapporo, the capital of Japan’s
northernmost island, Hokkaid¯o, where it is snowy, wind-
swept, “harsh,” Shohei says – in all times but the heart
of baseball season a landscape shaped by arctic blasts
across the Sea of Japan from Siberia. While living in the
team dorms, he sent his salary home to his mother, who
in turn put about $1,000 in his bank account each month
that Shohei rarely touched. Despite the mounting fame in
Japan, his was a life organised around the single-minded
pursuit of a set of highly specific baseball goals. In high
school, his coach asked him to create a document with
objectives for each year. For example: age 26: win the World
Series and get married. Age 37: first son starts baseball. Age
38: stats drop; start to think about retirement. The lens,
Shohei struggled at first, spiking balls from the ↑ jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none sensibil-
mound, whiffing at Major League gas. The explana- ity that had ruled the game for so long. But
tions were reasonable: he’d often been slow to start THIS PAGE, TOP by 2018, Shohei had proved the concept.
a season; the average pitcher in the MLB throws And made his demands clear. Both ways or
harder than the average pitcher in Japan’s baseball all jerseys no ways. The major clubs were finally ready
league; the ball is literally different (“it just felt really (throughout), his own to see it his way.
slippery in my hand”); and he was adjusting to a
move to a whole new country, new food, new wall turtleneck £149 I T W A S P R O B A B L Y always going to be a
plugs. “I’ve never been homesick,” he says. Not when Boss Japanese player who reminded us what
he left his parents’ house in high school, not when he baseball at its best could be. With its feverish game-day
moved into the dorms in Hokkaid¯o, not in Phoenix THIS PAGE, atmosphere and galaxy of superstars, baseball in Japan
that first spring training, and not now. But he was BOT TO M retains the potency of baseball in America from 25, 50, 75
struggling – and he felt a little lost. years ago, when baseball was America’s game, and players
jacket (price were not just our most famous athletes but our most
Which is when Ichiro Suzuki – the 10-time All-Star on request) famous anybodies.
and one-time MVP, who at 44 was in It has been some time since a new baseball player has
Arizona for his next-to-last season with ERL become a household name. But it was palpable all last year
the Mariners – invited Shohei to dinner. that fans were witnessing someone who might reframe the
all hats possibilities, for generations to come, for what any one indi-
“Growing up,” Shohei says, “Ichiro (throughout), vidual player could do in the game. The thrust was awe. But
was for me the way that I think some opportunism, as well. Here was the saviour baseball had
kids, some people, look at me today. his own been waiting for. To reenergise a game that had suffered a
Like I’m a different species. Larger shift in interests towards other sports, towards other stars,
than life. He was a superstar in Japan.
He had this charisma about him. But
once I actually met him, and went to
dinner with him, he was much closer
to an average guy – which was kind
of surprising.”
At dinner that night, they talked
about the transition to the league, the
initial struggles of getting used to life
in America: “But he basically told me:
‘Remember to be yourself. You made it
this far being yourself, so don’t change
that, stay within yourself.’ And I kind of
had to think about that. I’m the type of person
who’s always modifying a little bit, a little tweak
in form here and there, always changing. Which
kind of contradicts with what Ichiro was saying.
But as I’ve really thought about it over the last
few years, I’ve realized that that’s me, that’s who
I am – actually changing stuff around.” Shohei
recognized that “being himself ” meant always
evolving. And it meant adhering to the instincts
that had got him this far – that had made him
the best player in Japan and had put him on
the precipice of becoming the best in the world.
“And so ever since that dinner with Ichiro, it
kind of gave me the confidence to just be myself,
to keep doing the right things, and to stay con-
fident, to stay the course.”
At one point on the boat, I ask Shohei how
he’d be different if he’d jumped to the US as an
18-year-old, right out of high school, instead of
putting in those five years with the Fighters and developing
further in Japan first. Back then, he says, everyone was just
scouting him as a pitcher. No way would he have been play-
ing two-way – pitching roughly once a week, designated
hitter most of the rest of the time, as he does now – or even
been given the chance in the US to try. “And to be honest,
I don’t even know if I would’ve made it at all,” he says. “I
would’ve had to go through the minor league system, and I
can’t really say 100 percent that I would’ve been called up
to the big leagues in the end.” Instead: patience and evolu-
tion. For both Shohei as a player and baseball as an institu-
tion. Major League teams may not have been ready in 2013
to try something so radical, to run that supreme risk of
wear and tear with a potential star or to fly in the face of the
136 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
towards other obsessions measured in seconds of enter- understands my question in English and chuckles. ↑
tainment, rather than extra innings and endless summers. “I mean, if I could speak English, I would speak English,” sweater £880
This was an entirely reasonable evolution. Baseball would
be relegated to the back burner for good. But what if, 2021 he says in Japanese. “Of course I would want to. Obviously shirt £460
seemed to tease, that inevitable fate were in fact reversible? it wouldn’t hurt to be able to speak English. There would Prada
only be positive things to come from that. But I came here
“This brother is special, make no mistake about it,” sport to play baseball, at the end of the day, and I’ve felt like my trousers from
commentator Stephen A Smith said in July, on ESPN’s First play on the field could be my way of communicating with ABC Signature
Take. “But the fact that you’ve got a foreign player that the people, with the fans. That’s all I really took from that
doesn’t speak English, that needs an interpreter – believe in the end. Costume
it or not, I think contributes to harming the game to some
degree, when that’s your box office appeal. It needs to be “It’s mandatory in school, for, like, six years in Japan,”
somebody like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, those guys.” He he adds. “Middle school, high school, which everyone
continued, “I understand that baseball is an international takes. That was the only exposure to English I had before
sport itself in terms of participation. But when you talk I came over. My high school English teacher was actu-
about an audience gravitating to the ballpark, to actually ally my baseball coach…,” he says, laughing, as something
watch you, I don’t think it helps that the number one face appears to occur to him in real time. “Now that I think
is a dude that needs an interpreter so that you can under- about it, he probably can’t speak the language that well.
stand what the hell he’s saying in this country.” But they teach it to us to, like, pass tests. They don’t really
teach it to be…” To be broadcast on TV. To be making
Smith ultimately apologised for his comments but was the charismatic case for rejuvenating the world’s latent
hammered for both his contention that the star of a profes- baseball fandom. “Not that I want to be dissing the whole
sional US sport needs to speak English – and that anyone English educational system of Japan…”
would necessarily care one way or the other. When I ask
Shohei what he made of Smith’s comments, he (ironically) Part of what Smith was presupposing, I suggest to
Shohei, is that he has become the quote-unquote face of
FEBRUARY 2022 GQ 137
baseball. And that baseball needs him to act in a certain THIS PAGE AND interested in. I’m talking about the golden era that pro-
way to carry the game on his shoulders. Do you feel any new OPPOSITE PAGE, duced Bull Durham (1988), Major League (1989), Field
pressure to represent more than yourself or your team, and of Dreams (1989), Mr. Baseball (1992), A League of Their
instead the whole game? TOP RIGHT Own (1992), The Sandlot (1993), Rookie of the Year (1993),
Angels in the Outfield (1994), and Little Big League (1994).
“More than pressure,” he says, “I’m actually happy to tank top price For the record, Shohei has seen none of these, not even
hear that. It’s what I came here for, to be the best player I on request Mr. Baseball, about an American who goes to play in the
can. And hearing ‘the face of baseball,’ that’s very welcom- Calvin Klein Japanese league, but likes Rudy (1993). How could any rea-
ing to me, and it gives me more motivation to – because I’ve Underwear sonable eight-year-old conclude, just then, that baseball
only had, this was my first really good year. And it’s only was not the most important text of an American life? And
one year. So it gives me more motivation to keep it up, and shorts £125 yet. After surging through the summer of Sammy Sosa and
have more great years.” Aimé Leon Dore Mark McGwire, through the steroids scandal, and then a
two-decade decline into a sports landscape populated by
The debate over who, exactly, should “save baseball” is trousers £2,420 the riches of an ascendant NBA, a resuscitated NFL, and
an extension of the desperate sense, borne out of years of Brunello Cucinelli global TV deals for the Premier League and Formula 1, it’s
decline in popularity, that baseball needs a saviour in the easy to look back and see how those halcyon days were
first place. That something is broken, or at the very least sneakers £75 always going to end, and how baseball, that unmistakable
flat, and that something fundamental must pivot in order Converse wallpaper of the American century, might fade for good
for baseball to thrive again. I ask him what he’d change from too much time in the sun.
about the game as it currently works. He considers, then socks from
says, “Honestly, I’m satisfied with everything. No need to ABC Signature And yet. And yet. Shohei Ohtani has something to say
make any drastic changes.” about my terminal prognostication.
Costume
But there is that thing, I tell him, that so many of us in “Baseball was born here, and I personally want baseball
feel in our bones, where we can sense that baseball has to be the most popular sport in the United States. So if
faded in the collective cultural imagination. Particularly I can contribute in any way to help that, I’m more than
for a writer like this one whose love of baseball and love open to it,” he says. “But if you look at the whole baseball
of movies awakened at the precise same moment, when population in the world, it’s a lot less than, like, soccer
baseball seemed to be the only topic that Hollywood was
138 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
and basketball, because only select countries are really ↑
big on baseball. But in those countries where it’s huge, it’s t-shirt
unbelievably huge.” (price on request)
What he’s saying is that it’s a very US-centric idea that ERL
baseball is dying. What he’s saying is that if you ever get
the sense again that baseball is dying, you might want to where there was a spotlight on
take a trip to Japan. me – and that actually helped
when I became more success-
T H I S W I N T E R , S H O H E I returned to Japan, as he does each ful globally because I was
off-season, to spend time at his place in Tokyo, his old house already used to it to an extent.
in O¯shu¯, and at the hot springs in Iwate where he goes I think Shohei can relate to
with his family at new year to get away from “the flashbulb that.” US-based Japanese
lights” in his home country. “He’s already tall for a Japanese tennis star Kei Nishikori told
guy, so he stands out anyway, ” says Ippei, who’s had a front- me separately: “For me, it’s a
row seat to the Shohei circus for years, ever since he was the lot easier to live and train in a
interpreter for foreign players at the Nippon-Ham Fighters. small town in Florida, where
“He hasn’t really been able to go out freely since his rookie it’s very easy to go shopping, go
year with the Fighters.” Crushes of fans. Perpetual media to restaurants, or go to a movie
presence. Stalkers in the dorms in Hokkaid¯o, Ippei recalls. without anyone knowing. In
The mania now has compounded so that Shohei hardly ever Japan, it’s a little bit crazy. It’s
appears in public in Japan, and when he does, he’s forced to just much harder to go outside
move cautiously between house and car and the occasional into the street for daily life. For
restaurant, where he or Ippei must call ahead to arrange to my career, I always felt it was
be sneaked in through a side door. good to live in Florida. Besides
the great training, it’s a calm environment.”
“At this point, I think he’s in his own category,” Ippei says
when I ask him about Shohei’s fame in Japan relative to Notably, Osaka and Nishikori – along with reigning
other athletes, movie stars, musicians, and politicians. “After Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, Shohei, and the con-
the season he had, I really feel like there’s probably not one tingency of Japanese stars in other sports – represent a new
single person that can match his popularity right now. I core of Japanese athletic supremacy. I ask Shohei if he feels
heard a lot of people say that Shohei himself was a bigger there’s a difference, and, if so, what he ascribes this genera-
attraction than the Olympics in Japan. The best part of the tion’s success to.
pandemic. I hear a lot of people wake up to watching Shohei.
He’ll hit a home run and it’ll just lighten up the whole coun- “I think you’re right that there’s something going on. And
try. He just made their day, made it easier for them to go to I think the reason it feels like that is it’s easier to get out
work in the morning.” there in the world right now than it was back in the day.
Like in baseball, someone like Nomo-san or Ichiro-san
Just because he’s playing in the US now doesn’t mean the were the pioneers, they opened the door for someone like
scrutiny dims. Rather, it intensifies. There are as many as 20 me. And I’m sure it’s like that in other sports too. I just
journalists who cover Shohei full-time for Japanese press feel taking that first step is the hardest step – and it’s a
outlets. Not Major League Baseball. Not the Angels. Just lot easier to get out there and challenge the world now.”
Shohei Ohtani. The scrutiny that Japanese athletes experi-
ence when they reach the highest echelons of sports is not At one point, while we’re cruising around and the sun
exactly new, or all that difficult to understand. is glinting off the surface of the harbour like the crackling
static in the air, Shohei looks out over this rarefied edge of
It’s something that Naomi Osaka explained to me when his new home and says, in English, “Beautiful….” to no one
I asked her about Shohei. “In the US, there are more star in particular. It is impossible, on an afternoon like this,
athletes across various sports, so the load is a bit more not to understand how a player like Shohei – or the last
spread out. In Japan, there are fewer Japanese global stars, decade’s standout talent, Mike Trout – forgoes a greater
so the attention is a bit more intense,” she said. “Earlier chance of winning to play for the Angels. Yes, six straight
in my career, I was much more well-known in Japan, seasons with massively impressive stats. Yes, a fan base that
FEBRUARY 2022 GQ 139
seems at times to comprise only local residents and Mike ↑ not get bugged. The lifestyle is just… Tokyo, especially, is
Trout’s parents. It’s an odd setting for the game’s superstars. jacket £2,470 just a little more hectic and busy, stuff constantly going on.
But this here is a theoretical reason why. The electric boat Louis Vuitton Back here, it’s just nice weather, chill, laid-back.”
and the banana stand. The sparkling water of the sea at
sunset. The takeaway from True Food Kitchen (a Shohei Men's A F T E R T H E 2 0 1 8 season, when he was the league’s Rookie
favourite). The things that make a simple life a little bit of the Year and fans got a little introduction to the first
better and easier – besides MVP awards and hundreds of t-shirt from potential two-way career in a century, Shohei spent much
millions of dollars. Though, yes, he may enjoy playing at ABC Signature of his second and third years in the US on the back foot
the Red Sox’s Fenway (“the atmosphere of the stadium, the – recovering from knee surgery, heeding COVID-19 pro-
building itself ”), visiting the ballparks on the East Coast Costume tocols, pitching just twice in two seasons, and otherwise
(“there’s a lot of history there”), and sampling the delicacies attempting to find his way out of the first trough of his
of Chicago (“the deep dish”) – and though, yes, all dreams turtleneck £99 career. “More than frustration it was disappointment,” he
of landing Shohei may be alive and well one day in the near Hugo says, “because I knew there were certain expectations that
future if the Angels allow him to become a free agent – this were surrounding me, and I wasn’t able to meet those. For
here is tough to beat for now. trousers, his own myself, for the team. I just didn’t really know how good
I really was. Or if it was just because of the injury. There
I ask Shohei, known for that visualisation as a teenager wasn’t much clarity on why I was struggling.”
of his life decades into the future, if he has a sense of where
he’d like to end up, not just for the baseball years, but long Which is what made the fireworks of 2021 all the more
after he’s finished playing. “If I had to choose right now cathartic. Near the top of the league in home runs and slug-
where to live, I might pick the States. Just because it’s a lot ging; racking up Wins Above Replacement at the plate and
more relaxing, laid-back, chill. I can do my own thing and on the mound. A full season of the great two-way experi-
ment on full display with a healthy Shohei. “It was,” he says,
“just fun again.”
For all the unprecedented two-way scenarios and statis-
tics that Shohei set new watermarks for last year, there is
one thing that will never happen, but that I was curious to
hear if Shohei had ever considered.
You’re facing yourself as a batter: what happens?
He understands me without Ippei’s translation and
laughs his high-pitched laugh. Then he thinks very hard
before responding. He is throwing pitches, swinging at
pitches, seeing pitches from both sides.
“Five strikeouts.”
He is weighing the statistics, of which he is familiar. He
loves comparing numbers across the seasons, the decades,
the generations.
“One walk.”
A virtue of baseball’s enduring, if interminable, 162-game
regular season is the harmony between past and present
that allows us to quantitatively measure the greatness
unfolding before our eyes.
“One homer.”
He wasn’t obsessed with baseball history growing up,
but he loves poring through the detailed stat lines he has
access to now of the players everyone knows, but especially
of the players he didn’t realise were quite as dominant
as they’d been in their time. “You hear these big names
from the past,” he told me at one point, “and you know
they were good players, but you can see now just how good
they really were.”
“One double.”
Like relief pitcher Koji Uehara, the Japanese transplant
19 years Shohei’s senior, who was by several metrics one
of the most sneaky shut-down relievers of the last decade.
“Last two: a fly-out and a groundout.”
Very specific, I say.
He laughs. “I try to get as real as I can.”
There are the extraordinary feats, the defiance of limits,
the eruption of firsts and not-since’s and never-have-we-
seen’s. There is the two-way potency, the dual mastery of
the once sacred specialisations, the fresh blueprint for
how future stars might bring their singular assemblage
of talents to bear on the game. Those are the ways Shohei
Ohtani might break baseball by making it new. Or rather
by making it new by making it old again.
By reintroducing the possibility of a bona fide two-
way superstar. By reminding us what it was like when
140 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
↓ baseball players were kings. When their every movement In terms of maturity. How different would he be?
electrified a live crowd, stopped people in the street to “Honestly, even now, I feel like I haven’t really changed
LEFT huddle around a television or a radio, or prompted oppos-
ing fans to boo an intentional walk, as they did all last much since I was 18. There wasn’t a huge difference in
jersey, his own summer when they were deprived of the potential for those five years” – living in dorms in Japan, playing ball.
fireworks. These are, in other words, the ways in which
turtleneck £149 Shohei Ohtani is making baseball 1951 again – for fans That is: when that pure engagement with the
Boss old enough to have heard with their own ears the Shot game could be preserved by living simply and single-
Heard Round the World (the game-winning run scored mindedly. Then, as now. An apartment. A ballpark.
RIGHT by the New York Giants against the Brooklyn Dodgers in A Tesla. Some takeaway.
the decisive championship game in 1951). Or 1978 again.
sweater £880 Or, indeed, 1993, for this writer, and those my age, who no As we glide up to the dock, he thanks Balelo for the boat
shirt £460 doubt believed that ball legend Ken Griffey Jr. was more tour, and says “Nice ride!” in English. When I suggest that
Prada powerful than the president. he could get one for himself, he looks incredulous. “Too
much expensive,” he says.
grooming by hee More than new or old, though, he is really just helping
soo kwon using dior this country get a taste of what baseball feels like every Before we go, I ask him to describe for me, in his own
day in Japan, for fans for whom baseball never lost its words, what a yakyu¯ sho¯nen is.
backstage face & juice. He is imbuing baseball with an opportunity to go
body foundation. both forwards and backwards at the same time, in ways “Yakyu¯ sho¯nen is a kid who loves baseball,” he says.
tailoring by yelena that remind us – and showcase – all there is to love and “Who’s just purely enjoying baseball. When I was a yakyu¯
travkina. produced light up for. Shohei inspires this sentiment by being the sho¯nen, I probably had the most fun playing up to this
best there is. But he inspires it, too, by simply loving base- day, because I was just starting to learn a new sport, and
by erl studios. ball like I didn’t know anyone still did. Or at least like how it was just fun. And all the practices were usually at the
photographed at I figured only a child could. weekend, so I was waiting all week for the weekend to
los angeles angels hurry up and come so I could practice and play some ball.”
angel stadium. When I’d asked Shohei how he might be different if
he’d moved to the US five years earlier than he did, he I ask if yakyu¯ sh¯onen could be used to describe some-
focused on the baseball outcome: how he might not even one at the professional level too. Someone who, say, plays
have made it in the majors. But I also meant emotionally. with unadulterated joy. Who smiles – and even occasion-
ally apologises to his opponent – when he does something
incredible. Who treats every game like it’s the weekend
after a long week of school.
“I mean, it literally means ‘baseball boy,’ ” he says, smil-
ing. “But, sure, I guess you could refer to a professional
that way too.”
daniel riley is a gq correspondent.
FEBRUARY 2022 GQ 141
From
Iverson and Kyrgios
to Suárez
we present the and Zidane,
greatest
living renegades,
rebels, and mavericks
in the history of
global sport.
W H E N Y O U ’ R E Y O U N G , you’re Zinedine If you saw it live you can still picture it all these years later: the OPENING PAGES: JOHN MCENROE, BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES; LUIS SUAREZ, GETTY IMAGES.
told to aspire to be like the stars Zidane sudden lowering of the shoulder and forward thrust, the terse THESE PAGES: ZINEDINE ZIDANE, JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/GET TY IMAGES; TRAE YOUNG, KEVIN C. COX/GET TY IMAGES SPORT/GET TY IMAGES;
on the Panini stickers, the best, exchange with the referee after the red card, the ignominious DARRYL STRAWBERRY, TONY INZERILLO/ALLSPORT/GET T Y IMAGES; KYLE TROUP, BOB LEVEY/STRINGER/GET T Y IMAGES.
the all-time great. But sometime walk off the pitch past the trophy-in-waiting. Zinedine Zidane’s
later, in your early teenage years,
maybe, a different, darker shade shocking headbutt of Marco Materazzi in the waning minutes of the 2006 World Cup
of athletic superstar takes hold in
your mind. The rebels and the final – Italy prevailed over Zidane’s France on penalties – marked the end of a career
bad boys, the uncoachable
hotheads, the men who mirror defined as much by the sublime as the despicable. Eight years earlier, Zidane, the
your own angst and inner
rebellion. You’re 16 years old and son of Algerian immigrants, had tasted World Cup glory, leading a multiracial French
totally transfixed by the sphinx-
like Zinedine Zidane, inexplicably team to victory over Brazil. “With one World Cup he unified a fractured nation,” US
headbutting an Italian defender
in the last gesture of his career, football show Men in Blazers’ co-host Roger Bennett told GQ. “His two headers in the
the mulleted John Daly, teeing
off with a Marlboro in his mouth, 1998 final shattered the myth of Brazilian invincibility and utterly silenced the French
or US Olympic skiing champ
Bode Miller, missing the podium right wing. And then he used another World Cup to tear all that largesse right down.”
but making the party. As long as
there has been sport, there have We’re left trying to square the moments of astonishing artistry with those of deplor-
been athletes with the swagger
to defy convention. Those who able rage. The man capable of producing an exquisite left-footed volley to win the
played only by rules they wrote
for themselves. And in so doing, 2002 Champions League also racked up 14 career red cards, including one for another
they’ve updated more than
merely the game – they’ve headbutt, in 2000, of Hamburg’s Jochen Kientz – a haunting foreshadowing of his final
changed the culture. To
managers, coaches, agents and moments on the pitch. — E R I C W I L L S
officials, they are often
nightmares. But to the TRYAOEUNG the twerk of his limbs, the thrill of
fans, they are something like contorting his body to draw the
gods – even when they play Philadelphia. Hawks vs. Sixers. nastiest fouls on his opponents.
like devils. They remain the Game 1 of the second round of the Philadelphia is supposed to
people’s champions. And the 2020 NBA playoffs. Atlanta’s Trae be the city of underdogs, and
most human heroes of all. Young had shut down Madison here’s Knuckles the Echidna
Square Garden days before, and nutmegging grown men with
144 GQ FEBRUARY 2022 now, as Hawks fans cheered his crossovers, daring someone to
every bucket like the Rapture check him into the cheap seats.
was imminent, the message was There’s something beautiful about
clear: Trae was the league’s most watching a lawbreaker get away
delightful new villain, and this with his crimes. And in the NBA,
was his coming-out party. He there is no bolder antihero right
plays like he was born to be bad: now than Trae Young. If this is the
the dishevelled hair, the “fuck future of the game, bring it on.
you” threes from the logo, even
—T YLER R. T YNES
Darryl “When I reflect, I’m like, man, you were pretty crazy then,”
Strawberry says Darryl Strawberry, almost 60 and decades removed
from his years as a hard-partying, hard-playing baseball
megastar. He was crazy – crazy good. The first pick in the
1980 Major League Baseball draft, Strawberry used his wiry 6ft 6in frame to blast
335 career homers, becoming an eight-time all-star and four-time World Series
champion, winning with both the Mets and the Yankees. Though he says the New
York fans brought out the best in him – “I loved that fans would boo you when you
sucked,” he says – the New York lifestyle didn’t always. He was suspended three
times for substance abuse, and admitted to entertaining ladies in the clubhouse
between innings. “Everything on the East Coast stays open 24/7,” says Strawberry.
“I went to the club at night and didn’t come out until eight in the morning, and I had
a game that afternoon.” Strawberry says he was “broken, lost, and living a life all
wrong” off the field. Now he’s almost 20 years sober, a pastor, and has started a
ministry and a foundation to help children with autism. So what advice would he
give his 18-year-old self? “Listen to your mother.” — C L AY S K I P P E R
KYLE
TROUP
Kyle Troup didn't set out to buck
convention. The Afro’d son of ten-
pin bowling legend Guppy Troup,
he picked up the sport when he
was just three years old. So he
did what all kids that age do: he
grabbed the ball with two hands
and let it rip down the lane. And
then he did it again. And again.
For the rest of his life. “I had to
bowl two-handed because I didn’t
have enough strength to bowl
one-handed,” says Troup, who
would sometimes get flak from
traditionalists who thought his
style was goofy, perhaps even
unmanly. “But luckily for me, as I
got older, my father never tried to
change my style.” He stuck with it:
bowling with two hands gave him
more control, more power, more
rotations-per-minute. And now,
he’s not only one of the highest
earners in the bowling world,
he’s also part of a new vanguard
changing the sport. “Twenty, 25
years ago, nobody really knew
about two-handed bowling,” he
says proudly. “Fast-forward to
today, 60 percent of all youth
bowlers are probably bowling
two-handed.” As for his wild fits
– bright blue pants, shirts with
flames – that’s all thanks to Dad,
too. “Guppy wore wild pants, very
wild designs back in the ’80s.
It’s a Troup tradition.”
— CHRIS GAYOMALI
FEBRUARY 2022 GQ 145
Allen Allen Iverson’s breakthrough moment came at the 1997 NBA Kieron THIS PAGE: ALLEN IVERSON, ANDREW D. BERNSTEIN/NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION/GET TY IMAGES; BODE MILLER, EDDY LEMAISTRE/CORBIS
Iverson All-Star Game in Cleveland. He wore cornrows. “That was huge,” says Pollard SPORTS/GET TY IMAGES; KIERON POLLARD, DINUKA LIYANAWAT TE/REUTERS/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO. OPPOSITE PAGE: NICK KYRGIOS, ROGER PARKER/
ALAMY LIVE NEWS; CAM NEWTON, AUBREY LAO/GET TY IMAGES SPORT/GET TY IMAGES; LUIS SUÁREZ, LARS BARON/GET TY IMAGES SPORT/GET TY IMAGES.
journalist Chris Broussard, who covered that game. “In the Black The latest in Trinidad and
community, that was just a natural hairstyle. But the thought had Tobago’s storied line of
always been, when you step into white America, you had to play the game, tone it cricketers, Kieron Pollard is
down. Now it was like, ‘Wow, this dude is really being Black in mainstream America.’ renowned for his volcanic
Allen’s message was, ‘Be yourself.’ He was merging hip-hop and basketball. That power. Built like a heavyweight
was a first.” Iverson, known for his ankle-breaking crossover dribble, had crossed boxer, he holds the bat like a
the cultures of the game he lived for and the music he lived by. He was also sim- broom in his mammoth grip.
ply being Allen Iverson, a product of Newport News, Virginia – Newport “Bad” News, Last March, he became one of
as it was called by some locals. His whole career, Iverson did it his way: lived his way, three batsmen to hit six sixes in
dressed his way, played his way. He owned every dribble of his life with an honesty an international over when he
his haters could never deny. His famous rant about missing practice is much quoted. smashed the hapless Sri Lankan
A final salvo to reporters near the end of that press conference is less remembered: spinner Akila Dananjaya to all
“I bleed like y’all.” Did he ever. Such heart this man has. — S K I P B AY L E S S parts of Antigua’s Coolidge
Cricket Ground. At 34, Pollard
is celebrated as a hero, yet he
was long cast as a villain – a
mercenary who prioritised
club over country, focusing on
the lucrative T20 format of the
game. Raised by a single mother
in a tough town outside Port of
Spain, Pollard made the hard
choices in his career he needed
to in order to survive. The rise of
T20 cricket over the past decade
coincided with his emergence,
and he plied his trade in leagues
across the world, becoming
a lavishly compensated star.
“The criticism against him
wasn’t fair at all,” says Trinidad
and Tobago’s national cricket
coach, David Furlonge. “Cricket
is no longer just a sport – it’s a
livelihood. It’s also how Kieron
has looked after his family.”
— CHE KURRIEN
BODEMILLER an Olympic level.” As Miller, something different. I wanted
now 44, reflects, “There were people to see me enjoying my life
Just how bad was Bode Miller’s certainly moments where I was and having a party and charging.”
bad-boy image? Bad enough defiant for the sake of being Charging meant attacking every
that his own uncle called him the defiant – but we’re talking less downhill, even if it cost him the
“greatest underachieving ski racer than 1 percent of the time.” What race. “I raced 450 World Cups,”
in history.” Bad enough that his looked like defiance, he says, he says. “I crashed in 200-plus of
most famous Olympic moment was authenticity. The American them.” But he still won six Olympic
didn’t come on the slopes but when public wanted as many medals medals. “Am I proud of what
he told a reporter, after missing the as possible – a priority that Miller I did, and how I did it?” he asks.
podium in 2006, that at least he didn’t share. “If I blew out my knee “The answer is a resounding yes.”
“got to party and socialise at racing, I didn’t want to look back
and be like, dang, I should’ve done — CLAY SKIPPER
146 GQ FEBRUARY 2022
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