Daniel Taylor is a British journalist and author. He was the chief

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ca ...

writer for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...

'' and ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' from 2012 to 2019, having joined the newspaper in 2000; in October 2019, he joined ''

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...

''. In March 2017 he won news reporter of the year and sports journalist of the year at

The Press Awards The Press Awards, formerly the British Press Awards, is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. History Established in 1962 by ''The People'' and '' World's Press News'', the first award ceremony for the then-named '' ...

for his series of stories about the

United Kingdom football sexual abuse scandal A child sexual abuse scandal involving the abuse of young players at football clubs in the United Kingdom began in mid-November 2016. The revelations began when former professional footballers waived their rights to anonymity and talked publicly ab ...

Career

Taylor began his career at the '' Newark Advertiser'' and was a freelance journalist for several years in Leicester and Manchester before joining ''The Guardian'' in 1999. Originally from

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The tradit ...

, he is based in Manchester and London. He also won the

Sports Journalists' Association The Sports Journalists' Association (SJA) is an association for British sports journalists. It represents the British sports media on the British Olympic Association's press advisory committee and acts as a consultant to organizers of major event ...

football writer of the year in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, as well as the 2016 scoop of the year prize for his investigation into the abuse scandal and the 2017 sports writer of the year award. The

London Press Club The Press Club was established in 1882 as a London gentlemen's club. For much of its history, it occupied premises in Wine Office Court, near Fleet Street. It still exists today, as a society for journalists, but no longer offers club facilities, ...

also honoured him in 2017 with its scoop of the year award and there have been further honours from the

British Journalism Awards British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and the

Foreign Press Association Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United S ...

, which named him both sports journalist and news journalist of the year. In 2019 he won

sports journalist of the year for a second time. Taylor has also been commended for his exposure of a cover-up within the

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

(FA) after the England women's footballer

Eniola Aluko Eniola Aluko (born 21 February 1987) is a football executive, commentator, and former professional player. She is the first Sporting Director for Angel City FC of the American National women's soccer league and formerly held the position of Sp ...

made complaints about alleged racial discrimination from the manager

Mark Sampson Mark Geraint Sampson (born 18 October 1982) is a Welsh football coach who was most recently a first team coach at Stevenage. He has also been a manager of the England women's team. Playing career Born and raised in Creigiau, a suburb of Card ...

. The FA subsequently apologised to Aluko after the investigation led to a parliamentary hearing. A new FA-commissioned inquiry upheld Aluko's allegations. In October 2019, Taylor joined ''

''. He was named feature writer of the year at the Sports Journalists' Association awards in 2022 and also become the first two-time winner of the North West Football Awards journalist of the year.

Books

He is a lifelong

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

fan and wrote a book about the club, ''Deep into the Forest,'' published in 2011. In November 2015 he published ''I Believe in Miracles'', a book on the rise of

under

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Englis ...

, to accompany the film of the same name. His other publications include ''This is the One'', a two-year diary of covering

Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all ti ...

's time at Manchester United. The book publishers

Pan MacMillan Pan Books is a publishing imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. Pan Books began as an independent publisher, es ...

hired Taylor as the ghost-writer for

Kevin Keegan Joseph Kevin Keegan (born 14 February 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. A forward, he played for several professional clubs from 1968 to 1984. Having begun his career at Scunthorpe United, he moved to Liverpool in 1971 an ...

's autobiography, which was published in 2018.

References

Living people British sports journalists The Guardian journalists Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-journalist-stub