Barney Ronay is an English journalist and author. He is the chief sports writer for The Guardian,[1] and has regularly appeared on The Guardian's Football Weekly podcast and at the Football Weekly live shows.[2] He has also written for the New Statesman,[3] When Saturday Comes,[4] The Cricketer,[5] and The Blizzard.[6]

Early life

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Ronay was born and raised in South East London, and is of Austrian and Jewish descent. His grandparents fled during the rise of the Nazis in Austria.[7] He was educated at Oxford.[citation needed]

Career

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Ronay has written several books. How Football (Almost) Came Home: Adventures in Putin's World Cup was published by HarperCollins in November 2018.[8] 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,[9][10] 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.[11][12]

In 2014 Ronay was named the 29th most influential Twitter user in UK football.[13] 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.[14]

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 Awards,[15] which he subsequently won ahead of Jonathan Liew and Jonathan Northcroft amongst others.[16] At the 2020 Sports Journalists’ Association awards Ronay was named best football journalist.[17] Ronay and Liew have written a TV series called The Red Zone which was set to be shown on Netflix in 2021, executive produced by Sam Mendes.[18] In March 2022 the project was announced as discontinued.[19] In November 2022 he won ‘writer of the year’ at the Football Supporters' Association awards.[20]

Personal life

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Ronay is a supporter of Millwall F.C.[21] He was a highly influential campaigner against plans by Lewisham council that he believed could harm the club.[22][23][24] Ronay spoke about his life on the Guardian's Football Weekly.[25]

References

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  1. ^ "Barney Ronay". The Guardian.
  2. ^ "Football Weekly - Live! James Richardson / Barry Glendenning as / Barney Ronay / Amy Lawrence. Puns & Punditry!". Eventbrite.
  3. ^ "Writers". www.newstatesman.com.
  4. ^ "When Saturday Comes - When Saturday Comes". www.wsc.co.uk.
  5. ^ "NEW ISSUE: MAY". www.thecricketer.com. Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  6. ^ Storey, Daykin &. "Barney Ronay - theBlizzard.co.uk". www.theblizzard.co.uk.
  7. ^ "My grandad was captured by Russians in the second world war and kept alive". the Guardian. 18 June 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  8. ^ Ronay, Barney (2 November 2018). "The day England created their own history in shoot-out against Colombia | Barney Ronay". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  9. ^ "Sports Book of the Week: The Manager, by Barney Ronay".
  10. ^ "What makes a great football manager?". Financial Times.
  11. ^ "Barney Ronay".
  12. ^ White, Jim (8 August 2005). "Half an orange and a tube of Deep Heat". The Telegraph.
  13. ^ "100 Most Influential UK Football Tweeters". Coral News. 13 November 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  14. ^ "A list of the 238 most respected journalists, as nominated by journalists in the 2018 Journalists at Work survey" (PDF). National Council for the Training of Journalists. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 May 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  15. ^ "FSF Awards 2018 shortlists announced | Football Supporters' Federation". 31 October 2018.
  16. ^ @WeAreTheFSA (3 December 2018). "It's @barneyronay who takes home the Writer of the Year award at the #FSFAwards - congratulations Barney!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  17. ^ "The Guardian's Marina Hyde wins two SJA awards in landmark achievement". The Guardian. 24 February 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Netflix Unveils New U.K. Projects with Sam Mendes, Rowan Atkinson, Andy Serkis". 13 December 2020.
  19. ^ "Netflix pulls plug on football comedy the Red Zone".
  20. ^ "The Guardian wins newspaper, podcast and writer of the year at FSA awards". The Guardian. 14 November 2022.
  21. ^ Twitter. 9 April 2014 https://twitter.com/barneyronay/status/453883501453266944?t=YDbgLiGUxoFNRLiEvC8nKQ&s=19. Retrieved 23 January 2023. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  22. ^ Ronay, Barney (27 January 2017). "How the battle to save Millwall's stadium was won". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  23. ^ "Millwall & New Bermondsey: it's time to get this story straight". 5 December 2017.
  24. ^ "Ross Archer: Labour's own goal at Millwall - Conservative Home". 30 January 2017.
  25. ^ Rushden, Max; Glendenning, Barry; Ronay, Barney (27 July 2021). "From the archive: the life and times of Barney Ronay – Football Weekly". the Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 July 2024.