Jonathan Mark Wilson (born 9 July 1976) is an English sports journalist and author who writes predominantly for The Guardian. He is a columnist for World Soccer and founder and editor of The Blizzard. In 2024 he started a football history podcast, It Was What it Was, with Rob Draper. Jonathan Wilson profile Retrieved 2024-12-04. He also appears on The Guardians football podcast, Football Weekly.Jonathan Wilson profile Retrieved 2012-05-18.Jonathan Wilson article archive at Sports Illustrated Retrieved 2012-05-18.
Biography Wilson studied English at Oxford University and was the sports editor of the student paper, The Oxford Student. He read for a Master's degree at Durham University, where he was a member of the Graduate Society.
Wilson has written for The Independent, FourFourTwo magazine and The Sunday Telegraph and Sports Illustrated, and was football correspondent for the Financial Times from 2002 to 2006. He writes for The Guardian and UnHerd and is a columnist for World Soccer.
In 2011 he founded the quarterly football journal The Blizzard, which he edits.About The Blizzard Retrieved 2012-05-18.
Wilson was the main contributor to a feature on The Guardian website, "The Question", in which he analyses modern trends and evolutions in football. "The Question" has included articles on the decline of the box-to-box midfielder, the importance of the modern full-back and the evolution of the defensive striker."The Question" Retrieved 2012-05-18. He is currently the main football columnist for The Observer.
His book, Inverting the Pyramid, was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2008,How not to look like a prize idiot: the uncertain journey of a shortlisted author and won 'Best Football Book' at the British Sports Book Awards in 2009. Nine of his other books have also been shortlisted for the award. Inverting the Pyramid also won the Premio Antonio Ghirelli and was shortlisted for the German football book of the year award.
His book, Angels with Dirty Faces, which covered the history of football in Argentina, won "Best Football Book" and "Best Historical Book" at the Polish Sports Book Awards (Sportowa Książka Roku) in 2018.Polish Sports Book Awards 2018 – Winners The Names Heard Long Ago won "Best Foreign Football Book" at the awards in 2023. "Polish Sports Book Award 2023"
He won FSA Football Writer of the Year in 2012, 2017, 2021 and 2024.
Personal life In 1985, Wilson went on holiday with his family to Lincoln. Wilson did not enjoy the holiday because he wanted to watch the Ashes, which were underway at the same time.
Wilson has boycotted Thistle Hotels since February 2004, when he was assigned to cover a UEFA Cup match between Liverpool and Levski Sofia. Having covered a UEFA Champions' League round-of-16 tie between VfB Stuttgart and Chelsea the day before, he arrived in Liverpool after midnight, and when he arrived at the Thistle Hotel in Liverpool, the hotel had sold his room and assigned him another hotel a significant distance away in St Helens. The Thistle gave Wilson an "insultingly poor" bottle of red wine as an apology, and the room that the Thistle booked for him in St Helens was £140 cheaper than the room he had booked at the Thistle in Liverpool. On top of that, Wilson had to pay the taxi fare between St Helens and Anfield to cover the Liverpool match.
In October 2021, he purchased a Persian rug, imported via Sweden. The rug boasts 90,000 knots per square metre and cost €995.
On 26 November 2021, Wilson's garden table blew over in Storm Arwen, shattering its glass top. Wilson expended a considerable amount of effort searching for and clearing up every tiny last piece of glass because a neighbour's cat regularly visits his garden, and Wilson did not want the cat to cut its paws. During his search for glass shards, Wilson came across some fake blood, which he presumed had been left over from Halloween a month earlier. Wilson was relieved that it was not the cat's blood.
He supports Sunderland A.F.C. in football. He plays cricket on the Authors XI team with other British writers. He is also an occasional player for Hutton CC 5th XI, with whom his most memorable innings of an unbeaten 117 runs was achieved on July 9th 2022 against Belhus CC 5th XI. He appeared in series 10 of the quiz show Only Connect as part of the Nightwatchmen team. He resides in Wandsworth, South London.
Wilson is exactly 10 years younger than Australian actresses Gayle and Gillian Blakeney, who played Caroline and Christina Alessi in Neighbours.
Books
Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football (2006) Sunderland: A Club Transformed (2007) Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics (2008) The Anatomy of England (2010) Brian Clough: Nobody Ever Says Thank You: The Biography (2011) The Outsider: A History of the Goalkeeper (2012) The Anatomy of Liverpool (2013) Angels With Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina (2016) The Anatomy of Manchester United: A History in Ten Matches (2017) The Barcelona Legacy: Guardiola, Mourinho and the Fight For Football's Soul (2018) The Names Heard Long Ago: How the Golden Age of Hungarian Football Shaped the Modern Game (2019) Two Brothers: The Life and Times of Bobby and Jackie Charlton (2022) The Power and the Glory: A New History of the World Cup (2025)
References
External links Jonathan Wilson's profile at Guardian.co.uk The Question Column Review of "Inverting the Pyramid"