Duncan Alexander

Last updated

Duncan Alexander is a British association football statistician, broadcaster and author for The Athletic.

Contents

Career

Under the pseudonym of 'OptaJoe', Alexander was the Chief Data Editor for football statistics company Opta. As 'OptaJoe' Alexander was a football commentator and pundit who live-tweeted during football matches with statistics and jokes. [1] [2] His first book, OptaJoe's Football Yearbook was published in 2016. His second book Outside the Box: A Statistical Journey through the History of Football was published in 2017. [3] [4] [5]

Alexander has also written for the BBC, [6] the Premier League, [7] The Football Association, [8] The Guardian , [9] The Daily Mirror , [10] and Sky Sports. [11]

He is a regular contributor on The Totally Football Show , [12] and has appeared on BBC Radio Five Live, [13] The Anfield Wrap [14] and podcasts for The Times , [15] The Independent , [16] and The Daily Telegraph . [17] He has been interviewed by FourFourTwo [18] and Coca-Cola. [19]

In January 2023 Alexander announced that he was joining subscription sports magazine The Athletic. [20]

Awards

OptaJoe was nominated for the 'online media of the year' award at the 2017 Football Supporters Federation Awards. [21]

Personal life

Alexander studied history at the University of Manchester. When interviewed by FourFourTwo Alexander chose as his favourite ever football book 'Among The Thugs' by Bill Buford (1991). [22] Alexander is a supporter of Wycombe Wanderers and lives in south London.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safe standing</span> Crowd control measure at stadiums

Safe standing is a measure of design in stadia to ensure that spectators are able to stand safely during events. It is important in the context of association football in the United Kingdom, where a series of fatal incidents led to legislation requiring major clubs to develop all-seater stadiums during the 1990s. Since then, fan groups have campaigned against the ban on standing accommodation, arguing that new design options would allow designated standing areas to be built in compliance with all safety laws and guidelines. As these options are outlawed in England and Wales, safe standing in practice originated in continental Europe, primarily Germany. This occurred because although UEFA and FIFA required all-seater stadiums for international competition, it was not mandatory for domestic matches.

<i>My Old Man Said</i>

My Old Man Said (MOMS) is the name of the online publication and Aston Villa F.C. supporters' group. MOMS was formed in 2011 from the ashes of the supporter protest against the controversial appointment of Aston Villa F.C. manager Alex McLeish. The group and site takes its name from the Aston Villa supporters' song My Old Man.

Neil Atkinson is a Liverpool-based writer, broadcaster and film producer. He is the host, Content Manager, and one of the main writers and business developers behind online football and culture magazine The Anfield Wrap which has had more than 28 million podcast downloads worldwide. Atkinson has presented sell-out shows of The Anfield Wrap in London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne, Ireland and Scandinavia, as well as on stage at the Sound City Festival in Liverpool. Atkinson co-wrote and co-produced the film Native, which had a theatrical release in the UK in 2018 and won the feature film award at the 2016 Boston science fiction festival. Described as "smart" and "elegant" by Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. Kim Newman in Empire magazine described it as "ambitious, unusual and thought-provoking". In The Times, Ed Potton wrote that it was a "script full of promise, with provocative things to say about empathy, obedience and individualism".

The Anfield Wrap is a collective of podcasts, radio shows, videocasts, live shows, magazine and website articles predominantly about Liverpool F.C. as well as the culture and music in the city of Liverpool.

Andy Brassell is an English writer and broadcaster.

James Horncastle is an English sportswriter and broadcaster. Specialising in European and Italian football, Horncastle frequently covers football for TNT Sports.

Julien Laurens is a French football journalist and broadcaster based in London.

<i>The Totally Football Show</i> British football podcast

The Totally Football Show presented by James Richardson is a thrice weekly podcast about association football produced by Muddy Knees Media. From June 15, 2020 it was incorporated into and also available via The Athletic. It regularly features on lists of the best association football podcasts.

Michael Cox is a British journalist and author who provides football analysis for the UK branch of The Athletic. He created the website Zonal Marking about formations and tactics in association football.

Daniel Storey is a British journalist and author. He is the Chief Football Writer at the i (newspaper).

Rory Smith is a journalist, broadcaster and author. He is the chief soccer correspondent of The New York Times, having taken up the role in 2016. Smith is a former journalist of The Times, The Independent, and The Daily Telegraph,

<i>Quickly Kevin, Will He Score?</i> Football podcast

Quickly Kevin, Will He Score? is a nostalgia podcast based around association football in the 1990s. Guests have included former professional footballers, comedians, and sports television presenters.

Iain Macintosh is a British journalist, author and podcaster.

Jonathan Liew is an American sportswriter for The Guardian. Liew has been named the sports writer of the year, and sports columnist of the year, at the annual SJA Awards.

Ed Malyon is a British sports media executive and writer who was most recently Managing Director of UK Operations for The Athletic. He was formerly the sports editor of The Independent and the weekend football editor of the Daily Mirror.

Adam Hurrey is a London-based British journalist, author, and podcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miguel Delaney</span> Football journalist and author in Ireland

Miguel Delaney is a Spanish-Irish football journalist and author. He is the chief football writer at The Independent.

Jonathan Northcroft is a Scottish sports journalist and author. He is currently the Chief Football Writer for The Sunday Times.

Fans Supporting Foodbanks is a joint initiative between rival Liverpool F.C. and Everton F.C. supporters, founded in 2015 to tackle food poverty in Liverpool. It provides a quarter of all food donations to north Liverpool food banks and has helped to develop a network of fan-driven food banks across the UK. It is an example of progressive football fan activism.

Kieran Maguire is a British academic, author, and broadcaster. He specialises in the accountancy of association football and wrote the book The Price of Football. His expertise is frequently sought within English football media. Alongside comedian Kevin Day, Maguire presents a twice-weekly podcast called The Price of Football in which football finances are discussed.

References

  1. ↑ "Duncan Alexander". www.penguin.co.uk.
  2. ↑ "Exclusive: Interview with Duncan Alexander, author of Opta Joe's Football Yearbook 2016 - The Boot Room". 4 September 2016.
  3. ↑ Outside the Box, A Statistical Journey through the History of Football by Duncan Alexander. www.penguin.co.uk.
  4. ↑ Cairns, Gordon. "When Saturday Comes - Outside The Box: A statistical journey through the history of football". www.wsc.co.uk.
  5. ↑ "Opta stats guru releases new book!". Goal.com. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  6. ↑ "Opta Insight: Premier League Trends". BBC Sport.
  7. ↑ "Sequencing unmasking true creative forces".
  8. ↑ Tuesday 31 Jan 2017 (31 January 2017). "Opta Sport provide their Emirates FA Cup team of the fourth round". Thefa.com. Retrieved 27 June 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ Alex, Duncan; er (11 February 2015). "Louis van Gaal v Sam Allardyce: who is right and what is a long ball anyway? - Duncan Alexander". the Guardian.
  10. ↑ "Duncan Alexander - Mirror Online". www.mirror.co.uk.
  11. ↑ "Bournemouth to upset Chelsea in Opta Joe's Super Six £1 million predictions". Sky Sports.
  12. ↑ "The Spy with the Cold Nose, Zlatan's Galaxy Quest, and memories of that 7-1 - Totally Football Show". www.thetotallyfootballshow.com.
  13. ↑ "Football trivia from one of the country's top football statisticians, Duncan Alexander, Essential Phil Williams - BBC Radio 5 live". BBC.
  14. ↑ "TAW Special: Duncan Alexander On 'Outside the Box: A Statistical Journey Through the History of Football' - The Anfield Wrap". 15 November 2017.
  15. ↑ "The Game podcast: Where did Chelsea go wrong against Guardiola's City?". 2 October 2017 – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  16. ↑ "The Indy Football Podcast: How competitive is the Premier League?".
  17. ↑ Sport, Telegraph (28 December 2017). "Total Football Podcast:Toughest stats questions answered". The Telegraph.
  18. ↑ "No, seriously: what the heck is expected goals (xG)?". 22 November 2017.
  19. ↑ "Game Changer: How the Second Screen has Revolutionised Rugby". Coca-cola.co.uk.
  20. ↑ "Why I joined: Duncan Shearer, locked cars and the evolution of football data". The Athletic.
  21. ↑ "FSF Awards 2017 shortlists announced - Football Supporters' Federation". www.fsf.org.uk. 31 October 2017.
  22. ↑ https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/fourfourtwos-best-football-books-ever-writers-choices%3F_format%3Damp


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.