View Full Version : Best Football journalist in Europe...
RoyalMan
29 Apr 2003, 12:13 PM
Who is the best journo in the game? I've selected a list of the one's whos work i'm familar with and who are IMO the best.
comme
29 Apr 2003, 12:27 PM
Sorry to do this but i'll pick from off the list and say Brian Glanville. This is only because i haven't read many non-English ones, and I know Balague only from Spanish football on Sky.
Samarkand
29 Apr 2003, 02:33 PM
Definitely not Pedro Pinto.
Alan Shearer in the England WC squad?
Roy and Robbie Keane, brothers?
And many others.
No, definitely not Snr. Pinto
Bauser
29 Apr 2003, 04:01 PM
The amount of languages in Europe makes this thread rather pointless. There might be some excellent journalists in Poland or Yugoslavia whose work is unknown abroad due to language barriers.
Juanele
29 Apr 2003, 07:16 PM
I haven't read too many articles from those guys. One guy not listed is Phil Ball, I've always enjoyed reading his columns.
Matt Clark
30 Apr 2003, 01:00 PM
Well, I'll forgive you the fact that your inspiration for this thread clearly came from TalkSport's "Football First, Monday Night In Europe" show - but .... Adrian Durham!?!!?!?!
If that man is a Journalist, then Paul Gascoigne is a Methodist Preacher.
There are many, many journalists who do not feature for either a Murdoch publication or a TV/Radio show that rate ahead of that lot - Marcotti in particular. If that guy's "Italia" chip got any bigger, he'd need Alexis-style 80's shoulder pads just to walk straight.
Henry Winter, Simon Kuiper and Andreas Holzman are top quality journos.
RoyalMan
30 Apr 2003, 04:56 PM
Originally posted by Matt Clark
Well, I'll forgive you the fact that your inspiration for this thread clearly came from TalkSport's "Football First, Monday Night In Europe" show - but .... Adrian Durham!?!!?!?!
If that man is a Journalist, then Paul Gascoigne is a Methodist Preacher.
There are many, many journalists who do not feature for either a Murdoch publication or a TV/Radio show that rate ahead of that lot - Marcotti in particular. If that guy's "Italia" chip got any bigger, he'd need Alexis-style 80's shoulder pads just to walk straight.
Henry Winter, Simon Kuiper and Andreas Holzman are top quality journos.
Well my inspiration was also uefa.com, cnn, Sky etc
But on the subject of Durham, he's probably not as knowledgeable as the others but as an all round journalist he's quality.
As for Marcotti, i agree that he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder, BUT his knowledge of European/World football is SECOND TO NONE. Also on the radio he is one of the funniest guys around!
Matt Clark
01 May 2003, 07:54 AM
Funny like Jaws10 is funny, yeah. Which is funny.
But apart from reading out wanky emails from the sort of berks that send wanky emails to TalkSport and winding up Ray Houghton, what exactly qualifies Adrian Durham as a quality journalist?
I think it would be hard to establish exactly whose knowledge of European football gossip (for that is all it is) is second to none. They all make it their trade, it's just some are bigger girls than others.
modownes
01 May 2003, 11:34 AM
I voted for Marcotti since, out of the ones on the list, I find his articles the most analytical and well done. As someone pointed out earlier, he has definite biases, which isn't necessarily wrong, but he can be accused of poo-pooing certain teams and countries.
Phil Ball, who writes Spanish football columns on Soccernet, is my personal choice for favorite columnist. He has a style and wit which bring a human side to the sports writing he does. It's certainly more interesting than the old man's club style of sports writing so prevalent in America.
--Mo
http://www.americanfooty.com/
Malaga CF fan
01 May 2003, 02:47 PM
Like others earlier in the thread, I enjoy Phil Ball's style of writing as well. He's not really a critical soccer writer, as he doesn't really evaluate the action on the pitch, but covers more of the cultural, political, historical and social aspects of futbol in Spain. Having lived in Spain, I particularly enjoy his views because they remind me so often of my experiences there and the little idiosyncracies of La Liga. He posts a weekly article on espn/soccernet. He's about the only English language writer I pay much attention to, as I read mostly Marca and other Spanish language papers.
RoyalMan
05 May 2003, 02:44 PM
Just bringing it back to life.
Real Madrid
05 May 2003, 09:26 PM
I voted for Marcotti as well... because he is probably the most knowledgable and articulate soccer journalist I know.
I also love his show on the radio that Balague and him have in London.
BTW, many of you might not know this but he co-wrote Paulo Di Canio's autobiography.
Matt Clark
06 May 2003, 08:52 AM
No he didn't. He wrote the whole thing. ;)
thepremierleague
08 May 2003, 01:38 PM
Guillem Balague is classic.
My Brother and I take the piss out of him constantly.
If you ever hear him pronounce 'Kluivert', you'll know what I mean. He's like a little annoying chipmunk. Sometimes he speaks so fast it sounds like he's speaking Spanish, and you can tell the host hasn't got a clue what he just said.
I don't like the English host much, (forgot his name) He sucks up a bit and always disrespects English teams and exaggerates the Spanish, even when they do crap in the Champions league,
"Well you'd have to say they were unlucky last night Guillem......."
RoyalMan
08 Jun 2003, 03:54 PM
*Bump*
RaJitsu
09 Jun 2003, 02:12 PM
How many people know journalists from other countries? And it's also a cultural thing. In Holland we have other thoughts about football than they do in Italy or even England.
mariebannerlfc
27 Nov 2006, 10:30 AM
Guillem Balague is classic.
My Brother and I take the piss out of him constantly.
If you ever hear him pronounce 'Kluivert', you'll know what I mean. He's like a little annoying chipmunk. Sometimes he speaks so fast it sounds like he's speaking Spanish, and you can tell the host hasn't got a clue what he just said.
I don't like the English host much, (forgot his name) He sucks up a bit and always disrespects English teams and exaggerates the Spanish, even when they do crap in the Champions league,
"Well you'd have to say they were unlucky last night Guillem......."
You are a cheeky so and so ain't ya! Balague is brilliant and he is my favourite pundit on Revista De la Liga when I see it every Tuesday evening oh and one more thing the english presenter's name is Mark Bolton and he is from the midlands. The first time I saw him was when he used to present a midlands football show on ITV1 late at night, then he did Sky Sports News and now Spanish Football. - 27.11.2006.http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/icons/icon11.gif
pittsy1
02 Dec 2006, 08:03 AM
Where am i on there?
ibby
07 Dec 2006, 06:38 AM
I voted for Gab, but also James Richardson deserves a mention
Teso Dos Bichos
07 Dec 2006, 12:56 PM
Good call.