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Paul James (soccer)

Canadian soccer player (born 1963)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ3898091 ↗
Source-derived summary

Paul John James (born November 11, 1963) is a retired professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. He was a one-time CONCACAF champion who represented Canada at both the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games and 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. He later worked as a soccer analyst and soccer coach. He is an honoured member of the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame.

In 1998, James was granted his Canada Soccer Coaching "A" Licence. After working as a player-coach in the Canadian Soccer League, he later served as a coach with Canada's national youth teams from 1998 to 2001, including the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2001. A graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, James has added to his academic credentials by completing the prestigious Football Industries MBA (FIMBA) at the University of Liverpool in England.

In February 2012, Paul revealed he had suffered from a crack cocaine dependency for many years. Paul was on a hunger strike to protest his mistreatment by York University over his "Substance Disability".

Early years

James lived in Cardiff until July 3, 1980 when at 16 years of age he emigrated to Toronto, Canada, with his parents and sister Julie.

Editorial summary

“Paul James (soccer)” enters the record as canadian soccer player (born 1963). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Paul, James and soccer can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1963, 1984, 1986, 1998—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1963-11-11. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Paul, James and soccer.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Paul James (soccer)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Paul, James and soccer provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3898091. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1963, 1984, 1986 and 1998.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Paul James (soccer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Paul James (soccer) primary sources, Paul James (soccer) archive and Paul research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Paul James (soccer)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Paul James (soccer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.