We tell you why Football Paradise exists to write, and speak with Jonathan Wilson on the evolution of football journalism.
“Fortunate is he who can understand the causes of things.”
– Virgil, Georgics
Let us start from the beginning. That seems like a nice place to start. Two members of the Football Paradise team flew over to Manchester expecting to win nothing at The Football Blogging Awards last November. They were there because we were nominated as the Best International Football Blog out of thousands. They were there partly because it seemed like the right thing to do, and mostly because it was one of those nights all of us want to live for or work towards. Brushing shoulders with the elite, red carpets, propped-up sponsors’ backdrop for the token “I was here” photographs, the twinkling of jewellery against held up wine glasses, polite chatter, the best tux, the best dresses, and the best banter. Pretty sure Oasis was playing on the P.A too.
Gaurang Manjrekar’s favourite bands are U2 and Foster the People. As you can tell from his choice of music, he is the uppity fella. Anu Nande, our editor and an Arsenal fan, was a realist out of habit, up until her and Gaurang’s names were called to come up on stage. Speculation was rife on our WhatsApp group, that the reason why it took them a long time to get there was because they were at the buffet counter. Exhibit A is below.