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Paul Scholes and the Stopped Moment in Time

Gacina Bozidar

Tuesday, August 19th, 2025

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 The instant the time stopped
Really stopped emotionally
The evocation of an appeal-
but that appeal was unique,
and it stopped the time itself
like an instant at the opera

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 The earliest attendants at
Parc de Princes
were already there

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 The English players, still in their ordinary
clothes, were taking a pre-match walk
on the Parc de Princes pitch

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 Someone from the English fans section
was shouting as loud as possible
“Scholeseee”
This echoed inside the still poorly populated
but huge Parc de Princes
with only hundreds of
first supporters inside

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 And when normal time resumed,
That calling of Scholes stopped time in this empty
stadium the hours before
the start of the match
between England and Brazil
It was Paul Scholes himself who
responded by smiling and waving
Should Paul have been alone at the centre of the pitch at the time of
“Scholeseee” call inside empty Parc

Notes

From WIKIPEDIA; The 1997 Tournoi de France often refered as Le Tournoi, was an international football tournament held in France in early June 1997 as a warm-up to the 1998 FIFA World Cup.The four national teams participating at the tournement were Brazil, England, hosts France, and Italy.They played against each other in a single round-robin tournament with the group winner also being the winner of the tournament.It was the second Tournoi de France tournament after 1988.

Source: https://footballpoets.org/poems/paul-scholes-and-the-stopped-moment-in-time/