Darren Tulett (born 2 June 1965) is an English journalist who became a sports anchorman, presenting mainly

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 c ...

on French television. He was a presenter for Canal+ for a decade, and has worked for

beIN Sport beIN Sports ( ) is a global network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. It has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef O ...

since helping to launch the channel in 2012. His presenting style is lighthearted and relaxed. Having become relatively famous in France - originally as the face of English football - he remains almost unknown in Britain, although he has been an occasional contributor to ''

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 ...

'' newspaper.

Early life

Tulett was born in

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on the ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, and grew up in Lancing, attending Boundstone School. He took various jobs after leaving school, and then studied politics and social sciences at Manchester Polytechnic for a year. After serving on the Students Union for a year, he quit his studies and worked for a year as a barman and for a local bookmaker. On the spur of the moment, Tulett agreed to go to France with a friend and he ended up teaching English in Paris for nearly six years. He wanted to become a journalist, returned to England and, somehow, landed a job with Bloomberg News in London as a sports reporter.

Football presenting

Bloomberg agreed to his request to report on the

1998 World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. He then remained in France, and reported for Bloomberg on football, the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

and the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

. He was also, briefly, on Europe 1 Sport, part of the

Europe 1 Europe 1, formerly known as Europe n° 1, is a privately owned radio station created in 1955. Owned and operated by Lagardère Active, a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group, it is one of the leading radio broadcasting stations in France and its pro ...

radio network in France, talking about English football. In 2002 he was signed up by Canal+ as a contributor on ''L'Équipe du Dimanche'', a weekly show on football around Europe. Playing with his image as an English dandy and surfing on the popularity of Premier League football in France, Tulett was taken on full-time by Canal Plus in 2004. The first program he hosted, with Isabelle Moreau, was a light-hearted talk show called ''Fabulous Sport'' on Canal+. He reported in a lighthearted, colourful 1960s style, becoming known in France as "Darren d'Angleterre". (''

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 w ...

'' has called him "The French

Alan Hansen Alan David Hansen (born 13 June 1955) is a Scottish former footballer and BBC television football pundit. He played as a central defender for Partick Thistle, for the successful Liverpool team of the late 1970s and 1980s, and for the Scotland ...

", and ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' has called him "The

Austin Powers ''Austin Powers'' is a series of American spy action comedy films: '' Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery'' (1997), '' Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me'' (1999) and ''Austin Powers in Goldmember'' (2002). The films were produced an ...

of French Television"). Also on Canal+ he presented ''Match of ze day'' on English football (the name presumably derived from the BBC program '' Match of the Day'' with a stereotypical French pronunciation of "the"). In February 2012 he was recruited by beIN Sports as a star presenter for the June 2012 launch of this new sports station and went on to work on the coverage of the Champions League, Europa League and European club football. Tulett also hosted beIN's ''Lunch Time'', a daily sports program broadcast Mondays to Fridays in the middle of the day in the early days of the station. Tulett has been the anchorman for a series of major sports competitions on beIN SPORTS channels, including the 2012 Olympics, Wimbledon and the football World Cups. He hosted popular shows around the 2018 World Cup and Euro 2016 and 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tulett, Darren 1965 births English sportswriters People from Shoreham-by-Sea English television presenters Al Jazeera people Living people People from Lancing, West Sussex