Phil Ball (born ) is a British sports journalist, football commentator, and author based in Spain. He is the author of many books on

Spanish football Football is the most popular sport in Spain. Spain has some of the most important teams in Europe (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid, Seville, Valencia, and others). It also has a high number of players (most of them being unprofession ...

, including ''Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football'' (2001), and the first English-language history of

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

, ''White Storm'' (2002). From 2001 to 2014, he wrote a regular column on Spanish football culture for ''ESPN.'' He has lived in Donostia-San Sebastián,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, for over twenty years.

Early life

Phil Ball was born in Canada to English parents. He grew up in

Cleethorpes Cleethorpes () is a seaside town on the estuary of the Humber in North East Lincolnshire, England with a population of 38,372 in 2020. It has been permanently occupied since the 6th century, with fishing as its original industry, then develo ...

on the northeast coast of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, having moved there in 1957. As a youngster he supported

Grimsby Town F.C. Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

, saying, "I was brought up on lower league football". He attended Clee Humberstone Foundation Grammar School (later

Matthew Humberstone School Matthew Humberstone Church of England School, also known as the Matthew Humberstone School, Matthew Humberstone C of E School, Matthew Humberstone Comprehensive School, MHS and Matty, was a secondary school in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshi ...

Career

Ball began with an English teaching post in a state

comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

in Hull. He later taught in Peru and Oman, eventually moving to San Sebastián. Ball is a lifelong

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 ...

enthusiast. His first published book was ''Morbo: the story of Spanish football'' (2001). The book linked the traditional antagonisms in Spanish football (the "Morbo" of the title) to Spain's regional, linguistic and political divisions. ''Morbo ''was listed for the William Hill award and won the GQ Sports Book of the Year award. A Spanish translation was published in 2010 and an updated edition came out in 2011. It was voted into the top 50 best football books by the British-based magazine ''442'' in 2017.

Language education

Ball is prominent in language education, authoring scholastic material for the Basque and Spanish curricula. He specialises in CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and has contributed articles and publications to the field. His latest book is ''Putting CLIL into Practice'' (2015, Oxford University Press), co-authored with Keith Kelly and John Clegg. It offers a theory of practice for teachers based on what Ball calls 'the three dimensions of content'. His series of textbooks for 12 year-old learners in Spain, ''Subject Projects'' was nominated for the Innovation Awards in Education at the ELTONS in London, in 2016.

Works

''White Storm: 100 years of

'' (2002) - first English-language history of the Spanish football club, written to celebrate its centenary. It used a similar socio-political approach to that taken in ''Morbo''. ''An Englishman Abroad : Beckham's Spanish adventure'' (2004) chronicled the first year of English footballer

David Beckham David Robert Joseph Beckham (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending fr ...

's spell at

. ''The Hapless Teacher's Handbook'' (2006) marked a departure from sports writing. It was a humorous autobiographical account of his years as a schoolteacher.

Articles

His football articles appeared in sports publications, including ''

When Saturday Comes ''When Saturday Comes'' (''WSC'') is a monthly magazine about football, first published in London in 1986. "It aims to provide a voice for intelligent football supporters, offering both a serious and humorous view of the sport, covering all the ...

'', ''

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

''. He has worked as an announcer for Sky Sports' ''

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

'' broadcastPhil Ball - books from rBooks.co.uk
and written a regular weekly column on Spanish football for ''ESPN'' since 2002. He writes for ''Football España'' and ''Liga Fever''.

Personal life

His son was a footballer who played for Antiguoko, a boys' club in San Sebastián which produced

Xabi Alonso Xabier Alonso Olano (, ; born 25 November 1981) is a Spanish football coach and former professional player who is currently the head coach of Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen. Alonso began his career at Real Sociedad, the main team of his hom ...

Mikel Arteta Mikel Arteta Amatriain (born 26 March 1982) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player. He is the manager of club Arsenal. Arteta began his senior career at Barcelona in 1999 but limited playing time led to a loan to Paris ...

Andoni Iraola Andoni Iraola Sagarna (, ; born 22 June 1982) is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played as a right-back, currently manager of Rayo Vallecano. Combative and with good passing skills, he spent the vast majority of his professional c ...

and

Aritz Aduriz Aritz Aduriz Zubeldia (; ; born 11 February 1981) is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He spent most of his career with Athletic Bilbao, scoring 172 goals across all competitions for the team over three spel ...

in previous years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Phil Living people 1957 births British sportswriters People from Cleethorpes Writers from Vancouver