It’s taken me a while to catch up on the role of Zen in football—and when I did, it took the unlikely form of of witnessing it used as a rebuke.

Last weekend, wunderkind Myles Lewis-Skelly * celebrated scoring Arsenal’s brilliant third goal against Man City by adopting a pose which mimicked that associated with Erling Haaland, underlining City’s discomfort. It turns out that meditation has become a niche avenue to footballing success, adopted by players such as Mo Salah, Raheem Sterling, and Anthony Gordon (see e.g. here). Still, I’m not holding my breath for a time when this converts footballers to regarding referees as Daoist sages, meekly accepting their decisions—as in rugby.

David Squires sums up the karmic action in cartoon form here. For more detached applications of Eastern Wisdom, see Daoism and standup, Sprezzatura and wuwei, and in sport, A god retires. Cf. Daoist non-action. See also under A sporting medley, including Philosophers’ football.

* In My Day, such a name would have been more likely attached to a mustachioed colonial brigadier…