--- title: Simon Kuper | TIME description: Kuper is a journalist who writes for the Financial Times and publishes in newspapers and magazines around the world. He is one of the world’s leading writers on soccer. His latest book, The Barcelona Complex: Lionel Messi and the Making—and Unmaking—of the World’s Greatest Soccer Club is out this November from Penguin Press. canonical: https://time.com/author/simon-kuper/ og:title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:url: https://time.com/author/simon-kuper/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 300 og:image:height: 300 og:image:alt: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:type: profile twitter:card: summary twitter:title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates twitter:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Simon Kuper ## Simon Kuper Kuper is a journalist who writes for the Financial Times and publishes in newspapers and magazines around the world. He is one of the world’s leading writers on soccer. His latest book, [_The Barcelona Complex: Lionel Messi and the Making—and Unmaking—of the World’s Greatest Soccer Club_](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/669837/the-barcelona-complex-by-simon-kuper/) is out this November from Penguin Press. ## Simon Kuper *  Aug 11, 2021 ### [How Lionel Messi Almost Destroyed Barcelona](https://time.com/6089441/lionel-messi-barcelona/) [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) Meta: null ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://time.com/","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/author/simon-kuper/","name":"Simon Kuper"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","@id":"https://time.com/author/simon-kuper/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/author/simon-kuper/"},"name":"Simon Kuper","jobTitle":null,"description":"Kuper is a journalist who writes for the Financial Times and publishes in newspapers and magazines around the world. He is one of the world’s leading writers on soccer. His latest book, The Barcelona Complex: Lionel Messi and the Making—and Unmaking—of the World’s Greatest Soccer Club is out this November from Penguin Press.","url":"https://time.com/author/simon-kuper/","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/"}}] ```