Jonathan Liew (born 19 November 1985) [1] [ failed verification ] is a 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. [2] [3]
Liew started in 2009 on the Daily Telegraph graduate training scheme after being named the 2007 Student Columnist of the Year in The Guardian's Student Media Awards [4] for a sports column in the student paper Injury Time, while studying at the University of Edinburgh. [5] He became a feature writer and columnist at the Daily Telegraph, where he was named as the 2011 Sports Journalists' Association "young sports writer of the year". [6] At the Telegraph, Liew estimated he covered at least 39 sports on five different continents and developed a fondness for rugby league. [7]
Liew moved to The Independent in June 2017 [6] and as part of his role Liew featured regularly as a pundit on 'The Indy Football Podcast' [8] which was nominated for best podcast at the 2017 Football Supporters Federation awards. [9] Liew has also guested on podcasts such as Second Captains [10] and The Anfield Wrap. [11]
In October 2019, it was announced that Liew had joined The Guardian. [12] after winning an essay writing competition with a piece titled "Something funny happened on the way to the stadium".
Liew has appeared on Sky Sports television programmes Sunday Supplement , [13] World Cup Supplement, [14] and Cricket Writers on TV. [15]
Liew contributes columns to the cricket almanac Wisden [16] he has written for Prospect [17] and the Belfast Telegraph . [18]
Liew has received praise from his peers for the way he has spoken out on diversity, equity and inclusion issues within sport. [19] [20] [21] He is a "Raise Your Game" mentor for the Kick It Out campaign. [22]
On 31 October 2018, it was announced that Liew had been nominated in the "writer for the year" category at the 2018 Football Supporters Federation Awards. [23]
On 31 January 2019, Liew was shortlisted for the football journalist of the year award and on 26 February 2019 won the sports columnist of the year award at the SJA awards. [24] In September of that year, Liew spoke out on the issue of under representation of British Asians in professional football in England, stating that he believed that the issue began at grassroots level. [25]
Liew was shortlisted for the Writer of the Year at the Football Supporters' Association awards in 2020 and 2021. [26] [27] In September 2022 he was nominated for "Sports Journalist of the Year" at The Press Awards. [28]
In December 2020, Liew was announced as being co-writer, with fellow Guardian sports journalist Barney Ronay, of The Red Zone, a Netflix comedy series centred around the world of football. [29] In March 2022 the project was announced as discontinued. [30]
Liew graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in History. [31] He appeared as a contestant on the Channel 4 television quiz show Countdown in 2013, becoming an "octochamp" by winning eight episodes in a row. [32]
When people talk about British Asians not being represented in football it's all these issues across the board - from grassroots to schools, scouting, clubs, academies as well as institutional.