Barney Ronay is an English journalist and author. He is the chief sports writer for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', and has regularly appeared on ''The Guardian''s '' Football Weekly'' podcast and at the ''Football Weekly'' live shows. He has also written for the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'',''

When Saturday Comes ''When Saturday Comes'' (''WSC'') is a monthly magazine about football, first published in London, England in 1986. "It aims to provide a voice for intelligent football supporters, offering both a serious and humorous view of the sport, covering ...

'', ''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county, club and schools cricket. Overview The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cric ...

'', and ''

The Blizzard "The Blizzard" (or The Snow Storm) (, ''Metél' '') is the second of five short stories that constitute ''The Belkin Tales'' by Alexander Pushkin. The manuscript for the story was originally completed October 20, 1830. It was intended to be the la ...

''.

Early life

Ronay was born and raised in South East London, and is of Austrian Jewish descent. His grandparents fled during the rise of the Nazis in Austria. He was educated at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Career

Ronay has written several books. ''How Football (Almost) Came Home: Adventures in Putin's World Cup'' was published by HarperCollins in November 2018. ''The Manager: The Absurd Ascent of the Most Important Man in Football'', was published in 2010 and was named book of the week by ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', ''Any Chance of a Game? A Season at the Ugly End of Park Football'' was published in 2006. He also co-authored the ''WSC Companion to Football''. In 2014 Ronay was named the 29th most influential

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

user in UK football. On 10 October 2018 Ronay was included in a list of the 238 most respected journalists working in Britain as published by the

National Council for the Training of Journalists The National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) was founded in 1951 as organisation to oversee the training of journalists for the newspaper industry in the United Kingdom and is now playing a role in the wider media. It is a self-ap ...

. On 31 October 2018 it was announced that Ronay had been nominated in the ‘writer of the year’ category at the 2018

Football Supporters Federation The Football Supporters' Federation (FSF) was an organisation representing football fans in England and Wales. It campaigned across a range of issues and supports fan representation on clubs' boards, lower ticket prices, and the introduction of ...

Awards, which he subsequently won ahead of Jonathan Liew and

Jonathan Northcroft Jonathan Northcroft is a Scottish sports journalist and author. He is currently the Chief Football Writer for ''The Sunday Times''. Education Northcroft first attended Newtonhill Primary School, where he regularly turned class writing assignm ...

amongst others. At the 2020 Sports Journalists’ Association awards Ronay was named best football journalist. Ronay and Liew have written a TV series called '' The Red Zone'' which was set to be shown on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

in 2021, executive produced by

Sam Mendes Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes (born 1 August 1965) is a British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter. In 2000, Mendes was appointed a CBE for his services to drama, and he was Knight Bachelor, knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours ...

. In March 2022 the project was announced as discontinued. In November 2022 he won 'writer of the year' at the Football Supporters' Association awards.

Personal life

Ronay is a supporter of Millwall F.C. He was a highly influential campaigner against plans by

Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

council that he believed could harm the club. Ronay spoke about his life on the Guardian's Football Weekly. Ronay is left-handed.

References

English sports journalists English podcasters English male non-fiction writers Journalists from London English Jews 21st-century English male writers The Guardian journalists Association football journalists {{UK-journalist-stub