Jonathan Liew (born 1985) is a sports 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 Gu ...

''. Liew has been named the sports writer of the year, and sports columnist of the year, at the annual SJA Awards.

Journalism career

Liew started in 2009 on the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'' graduate training scheme after being named the 2007 Student Columnist of the Year in ''The Guardians Student Media Awards while a student at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. He became a feature writer and columnist at the ''Daily Telegraph'', where he was named as the 2011 Sports Journalists Association "young sports writer of the year". At the ''Telegraph'', Liew estimated he covered at least 39 sports on five different continents and developed a fondness for

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

. Liew moved to ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' in June 2017 and as part of his role Liew featured regularly as a pundit on ' The Indy Football Podcast' which was nominated for best podcast at the 2017

Football Supporters Federation The Football Supporters' Federation (FSF) is an organisation representing football fans in England and Wales. It campaigns across a range of issues and supports fan representation on clubs' boards, lower ticket prices, and the introduction of saf ...

awards. Liew has also guested on podcasts such as

Second Captains Second Captains is an Irish media company established in March 2013 by Eoin McDevitt, Ken Early, Mark Horgan, Ciarán Murphy and Simon Hick. Best-known for their podcast ''The Second Captains World Service'', the company specialises in televis ...

and

The Anfield Wrap ''The Anfield Wrap'' (TAW Player) is a collective of podcasts, radio shows, videocasts, live shows, magazine and website articles predominantly about Liverpool F.C. as well as the culture and music in the city of Liverpool. Content Described b ...

. In October 2019, it was announced that Liew had joined ''The Guardian''. Liew has appeared on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

television programmes ''

Sunday Supplement ''Sunday Supplement'' (formerly ''Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement'') is a Sunday morning television programme in the United Kingdom about football which was broadcast between 1999 and 2020. The programme aired on Sunday mornings on Sky Sports P ...

'', ''World Cup Supplement'', and ''Cricket Writers on TV''. Liew contributes columns to the cricket almanac

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

he has written for '' Prospect'' and the ''

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media. Its editor is Eoin Brannigan. Reflecting its unionist tradition, the paper has historically been "favoured by the Protestant po ...

''. Liew has received praise from his peers for the way he has spoken out on racial issues within sport. He is a "Raise Your Game" mentor for the Kick It Out campaign. On 31 October 2018, it was announced that Liew had been nominated in the "writer for the year" category at the 2018 Football Supporters Federation Awards. On 31 January 2019 Liew was shortlisted for the football journalist of the year award and on 26 February 2019 won the sports columnist of the year award at the SJA awards. In September of that year, Liew spoke out on the issue of under representation of

British Asians British Asians (also referred to as Asian Britons) are British citizens of Asian descent. They constitute a significant and growing minority of the people living in the United Kingdom, with 6.9% of the population identifying as Asian/Asian Brit ...

in professional football in England, stating that he believed that the issue began at grassroots level. In May 2021, he wrote an article in defence of tennis player

Naomi Osaka is a Japanese professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles. Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam singles champio ...

after she decided to skip press conferences at the Roland Garros tennis tournament citing mental wellbeing. The article was headlined "We're not the good guys", and questioned the value of sports press conferences. Liew was shortlisted for the Writer of the Year at the

Football Supporters' Association The Football Supporters' Association (The FSA) is the national, democratic, representative body for football supporters in England and Wales. They are the leading advocates for supporter ownership, better fan engagement, cheaper ticket prices, t ...

awards in 2020 and 2021. In September 2022 he was nominated for "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 '' ...

Other writing

In December 2020 Liew was announced as being co-writer, with fellow ''Guardian'' sports journalist

Barney Ronay Barney Ronay is an English journalist and author. He is the chief sports writer for ''The Guardian'', and has regularly appeared on ''The Guardian''s '' Football Weekly'' podcast and at the ''Football Weekly'' live shows. Ronay has written for th ...

, of ''The Red Zone'', a

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

comedy series centred around the world of football. In March 2022 the project was announced as discontinued.

Personal life

Liew graduated from the

with a degree in History. He appeared as a contestant on the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

television quiz show ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' in 2013, becoming an "octochamp" by winning eight episodes in a row.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liew, Jonathan Living people British sportswriters 1985 births English podcasters