Brian Glanville, the acclaimed football writer whose insightful coverage influenced generations of journalists and fans, has died at the age of 93. A novelist and columnist, he was a prolific commentator on the sport, a passionate chronicler of Italian football, and the author of several seminal works.
Glanville spent 30 years as a football correspondent for the Sunday Times, contributed to World Soccer magazine for over five decades, and wrote obituaries for the Guardian. His final published tributes covered the careers of Peter McParland and Denis Law. A lifelong Arsenal fan, his first book, co-written with Gunners winger Cliff Bastin, was published in 1950, and his last work, a history of Highbury, appeared in 2006.
His book The Story of the World Cup is considered a definitive account of the tournament, while The Puffin Book of Football inspired many young readers. Sports Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman called him “the greatest football writer of all time”. Glanville also wrote novels, short stories, two plays, a musical, and the screenplay for the 1967 documentary Goal! World Cup 1966. He served on the Ballon d'Or jury.
Known for his critical views on England managers, Glanville described Sir Alf Ramsey as “a very strange man” who “should have gone two years before he did”. He also criticised Bobby Robson as “grotesquely overrated” and Walter Winterbottom as “a rotten manager”. Tributes came from former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil, who called him “a true great”, and Guardian's Richard Williams, who remembered him as a “maestro of the football stadium press box”.
