Raphael Honigstein (born 1973) is a German journalist and author.

Early life

Honigstein was born in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

to a Jewish family. In 1993, Honigstein moved from

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He studied law before becoming a journalist.

Journalism career

In the 1990s, Honigstein wrote about pop culture for the German youth magazine ''jetzt''. Honigstein is the English football correspondent for the German newspaper ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...

'', and has been the

German football Association football, Football is the most popular sport in Germany with 57% of the population declaring interest in watching it. The German Football Association ( or ) is the sport's national governing body, with 6.6 million members (ro ...

correspondent for the British newspaper ''

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 the UK radio broadcaster,

talkSPORT Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

. In addition, he also contributes to Germany's popular football magazine, ''11Freunde'' and the British football quarterly, ''

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 ...

''. Honigstein wrote for the UK arm of ''

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports journalism department of ''The New York Times''. It provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories ...

'' until 2024.

Broadcasting

Honigstein regularly appears on the podcast ''The Totally Football Show'' and, before its cancellation, on

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

television programme '' Sunday Night Football'', both hosted by James Richardson, where he gives updates on German football. He has also worked as a German football expert for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

, alongside host Alan McInally, and on Setanta's coverage of the Bundesliga. He has also appeared on ''The Friday Football Show'' on Setanta, and on

Setanta Sports News Setanta Sports News was a television channel from Virgin Media Television and Setanta Sports. The channel launched on 29 November 2007.

, discussing German football. He occasionally appears on the football show, '' ESPN Soccernet Press Pass''. He is a regular for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

’s Euro leagues show presented by Steve Crossman, with Guillem Balague, James Horncastle, and

Julien Laurens Julien Laurens (born 4 October 1980) is a French football journalist and broadcaster based in London. Career Laurens works for the French newspaper '' Le Parisien'', and has featured regularly on BT Sport Talksport and ESPN as well as contrib ...

Publications

Honigstein's book on the peculiarities of English football, ''Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Die geheime Geschichte des englischen Fußballs'', was published in German by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in 2006, and the English version ''Englischer Fussball: A German View of Our Beautiful Game'' was published by Yellow Jersey Press in 2008. Honigstein's book, ''Das Reboot: How German Football Reinvented Itself and Conquered the World'', was published by Yellow Jersey Press in 2015 and charts the return of

from the international wilderness of the late 1990s to victory at the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

in Brazil. His latest book, ''Klopp: Bring the Noise'' was also published by Yellow Jersey Press in 2017 and tells the definitive story of Jurgen Klopp's career.

References

External links

Weekly Bundesliga Predictions
BetVictor Blog DE

The Guardian
Interview with Raphael Honigstein
Soccerlens, 9 September 2008

European Football Weekends, 18 July 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Honigstein, Raphael 1973 births Living people The Guardian journalists German podcasters Honigstein German Internet celebrities German sports journalists German male writers German sports broadcasters 21st-century German journalists Süddeutsche Zeitung people German Jews Association football journalists