Brian Glanville

Brian Lester Glanville (24 September 1931 – 16 May 2025) was an English football writer and novelist. He was described by The Times as "the doyen of football writers—arguably the finest football writer of his—or any other—generation", and by American journalist Paul Zimmerman as "the greatest football writer of all time."

Early life Brian Glanville was born in Hendon, London, He was taken to watch Arsenal in 1942, and became a lifelong fan. Glanville was educated at Charterhouse School, where he played football. As a journalist he spent over 30 years as a football correspondent for The Sunday Times (1958–1992), and later returned to contribute pieces to the paper until as late as 2020. He also contributed to World Soccer magazine for over 50 years in print and online, and authored a weekly column for the website covering a range of issues.

He spent a significant part of his early career based in Italy and was seen as one of the leading authorities on Italian football as a result. Whilst based in both Florence and Rome, he wrote regularly for the Italian daily Corriere dello Sport (he was hired as their English correspondent in 1949),

His work was seen in publications such as Sports Illustrated and the New Statesman, and the prominent American football writer Paul Zimmerman called him "the greatest football writer of all time."

During the 1960s, Glanville worked as a writer for the satirical BBC TV programme That Was The Week That Was and wrote the screenplay for Goal!, the BAFTA award-winning official film of the 1966 World Cup, to which he also contributed the commentary. As a novelist he wrote mostly about football and life in Italy, with his 1956 novel Along the Arno particularly well received by critics. He also wrote The Story of the World Cup, a frequently updated history of the FIFA tournament. He was also an investigative journalist for the Sunday Times, writing on the match-fixing in the European Cup in the 1970s, particularly by Italian clubs. and FIFA president Sepp Blatter is referred to as "Sepp (50 ideas a day, 51 bad) Blatter". Glanville said: "The World Cup has become worse and worse over the years—it is bloated. Whatever Sepp Blatter thinks he knows is only secondary to the money he wants to make." He also said there are "far too many foreigners in the Premier League" and he criticised the spending of clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea as "repugnant". However, he was effusive in his praise of Paul Gascoigne in the latter, saying he had displayed "a flair, a superlative technique, a tactical sophistication, seldom matched by an England player since the war".

Personal life and death Glanville married Pamela (de Boer, nee Manasse) in 1959. They had two sons and two daughters. His wife died in 2016.