Expat hopes to score with new book

By Sofia Kannas

A BRITISH expatriate now living in Cyprus is in the process of writing a book about football.

Forty-six-year-old Gemini Reynolds, from Surrey, has been living in Paphos since 1994, and has had a keen interest in football for over thirty years.

Her passion for the beautiful game was developed mainly through her ex- husband Beau Reynolds, who was once Chairman of former Premiership Club Wimbledon FC.

“My ex-husband was Chairman of Wimbledon football club in the mid to late eighties, so that’s where it all comes from really — I’ve been involved in football since the 1970s.”

Asked whether she has maintained her involvement with football while in Cyprus, Reynolds said she still loves the game, but has become less personally involved since she left Britain.

“It’s more difficult to get involved in football here — it’s difficult to support a team in a foreign country if you don’t have any connection with it,” she said.

She has however monitored the progress and whereabouts of British footballers over the past nine years and met with Paul Gascoigne when he visited the island as a Glasgow Rangers player in 1995.

“I went to Anorthosis’ stadium in Larnaca to meet him, and of course my dog is called Gazza. I thought he was very, very nice and he obviously loves dogs, he paid a lot of attention to mine!

“I find it very hard to believe what you read about him in the papers,” she added.

Primarily an account of English football from the 1970s to the present day, Reynolds said her book, Scoring, will also include recollections and pictures of players and managers she has met in person.

“It will focus on different players I have met through my association with football, like Ronnie Harris in the Chelsea days, and George Graham, who I have met many times.”

Though Scoring is in its infancy, she intends to include several other footballing names in the book.

“There will be quite a few famous names mentioned in it,” she said.