Brian Glanville: Tributes paid to 'the doyen of football writers' after death aged 93 | OneFootball

Glanville was a towering, influential figure in the world of sports journalism and beyond, also writing more than 30 books

Glanville was among the biggest names in football writing for decades. He spent 30 years as football correspondent for The Sunday Times, wrote for World Soccer Magazine for more than half a century and also penned a number of books and biographies on the game, plus other novels and short stories.

His passing has led to an outpouring of tributes and fond memories shared from around the world of football journalism and beyond.

The Sports Journalists’ Association (SJA) wrote on social media: “The SJA sends its deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Brian Glanville, the “doyen of football writers” whose many books - including the essential ‘The Story of the World Cup’ - continue to bring so much insight, knowledge and joy to fans everywhere. RIP Brian.”

Henry Winter penned a heartfelt tribute to Glanville, which began: “Brian Glanville, who has sadly passed away aged 93, was the greatest football writer this country has ever known.

“The joy evoked by Glanville was not only in reading his beautiful, insightful words. But also listening to his eloquent appraisal of a player, a manager, a match.

“Glanville had a rich voice and vocabulary that demanded listening to. You didn’t so much meet Glanville as have an audience with him.

“All the time you were in his compelling company you were aware of what a privilege it was, what knowledge was being imparted.”

Friend and former Guardian chief sports writer Richard Williams also penned a moving tribute to Glanville published on the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) website, which read: “Some of us are old enough to remember a time when colleagues often sniggered at Brian Glanville’s ability to pronounce the names of foreign footballers – particularly those of Italian players – correctly.

“They stopped laughing when English teams were suddenly filled with foreign players, and the ability to avoid mangling their names became a necessary part of a football reporter’s skillset.

“Brian’s interest in the game as it was played in other countries sprang from his cosmopolitan nature; it turned out to be prophetic, and I often felt that the rest of us should have been paying him some sort of pathfinder’s royalty.

“A sophisticate as much at home at the Chelsea Arts Club as at Stamford Bridge, he came from a time before football became gentrified but played and wrote about it with wholehearted commitment and without condescension towards those who’d come to it via routes very different from his own.

“He also told the most appalling jokes, a habit long overshadowed in the memory by the vision he brought to his writings on the game he so loved, and the elegance with which he expressed even his most pungent opinions. So, not with a snigger but with a bow of respect: Ciao, maestro!”

The FWA said: “We at the FWA are saddened to hear of the passing of Brian Glanville, doyen of football writers. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”

Brazil-based football journalist Tim Vickery said of Glanville, who spent much of his time in Italy and also wrote for Rome sports newspaper Corriere dello Sport, among other Italian outlets: “I owe a huge debt to this man. A True giant of our trade, a mighty source of internacionalist inspiration. RIP Brian Glanville.”

Hayters’ Gerry Cox wrote: “RIP Brian, the inspiration for so many of us with his words in print and on radio. Outspoken, authoritative, intelligent and witty, you always knew he was in the room.

“Played football with and against him well into old age too, when his legs would not obey his razor-sharp mind.

“When my knees started to break down, he kindly referred me for successful treatment to his wife Pamela, a spiritual healer. We'll never see a man of so many talents in our ranks again. “