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]
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. [7] He was educated at the University of Oxford. [8]
Ronay has written several books. How Football (Almost) Came Home: Adventures in Putin's World Cup was published by HarperCollins in November 2018. [9] 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 , [10] [11] 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. [12] [13]
In 2014 Ronay was named the 29th most influential Twitter user in UK football. [14] 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. [15]
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, [16] which he subsequently won ahead of Jonathan Liew and Jonathan Northcroft amongst others. [17] At the 2020 Sports Journalists’ Association awards Ronay was named best football journalist. [18] 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. [19] In March 2022 the project was announced as discontinued. [20] In November 2022 he won 'writer of the year' at the Football Supporters' Association awards. [21]
Ronay is a supporter of Millwall F.C. [22] He was a highly influential campaigner against plans by Lewisham council that he believed could harm the club. [23] [24] [25] Ronay spoke about his life on the Guardian's Football Weekly. [26] Ronay is left-handed. [27]