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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Barney Ronay

Cole Palmer is a unicorn in this world inventing moments of pure footballing pleasure

A cartoon illustration of Cole Palmer
Cole Palmer looks a little unusual in an era of hyper-athletes with a gangly, mischievous physicality. Illustration: David Humphries

This week Central Cee launched his new Premier League song, called The Team. It owes its existence to a youth-centred, fist-bumping corporate tie-in with Coca-Cola, the press release for which appears to have involved a man in golf-casual clothing frowning at his computer screen for half an hour before typing “cool urban street words, what are?” into the AI search box, then nipping off for a quick brain-bowl strategy lunch with Roger from the Bluesky Synergy hub.

The song is really good, because Central Cee is really good. He’s super-smart with words, funny and snappy, but also surprisingly tender and raw.

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