Guillem Balagué
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Guillem Balagué

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Guillem is an award-winning Football Author, Journalist & Presenter who works regularly for CBS, BBC Radio 5 Live, ITV and LaLiga TV. He came to prominence in his role at Sky Sports and for more than 20 years was a key fixture of their coverage of La Liga. During that time he was known for his regular appearances on Sky Sports News, TV Show "Revista de La Liga”, his punditry work and for being the go-to man for anything relating to the Spanish transfer market. As the best known face of the official coverage of LaLiga TV he built up more than 1m followers on Twitter. He has his own YouTube channel, his own podcast and gives Master Classes in journalism at UCFB University in Wembley (London) and the Etihad stadium in Manchester. He wrote his first book, the bestselling "A Season on the Brink", an insider's account of Liverpool's 2004-05 Champions' League winning campaign, which he updated later following their 2006 FA Cup victory. In November 2012, he published the first international biography of Pep Guardiola, based on conversations with him, his former players and Pep's closest friends. It was shortlisted for Football Book of the Year both in the United Kingdom and Germany. The updated version, covering Pep’s period at Bayern Munich and his first two years at Manchester City was published in October 2018. In 2013, he wrote the first and only authorised account of the life of Leo Messi, full of insight and conversations with coaches, players, teachers and his family. The four years of his time with Pep Guardiola were analysed by Pep himself exclusively. The book, ‘Messi’ was shortlisted for the Football Book Award in the UK in 2014. Guillem has presented eight commercial events of Leo Messi, a collaboration that started in 2013. Five further editions would follow to include the many developments, successes and setbacks of Leo Messi's stellar career including his departure from Barcelona, his move to Paris Saint Germain, his triumphs in the Copa America and 2022 Qatar World Cup and finally his move to Inter Miami and yet another Ballon d'Or. As well as two football diaries (of the 2012 European Championships and the 2014 World Cup), he published the Official History of FC Barcelona in the autumn of 2014. In November 2015, he published 'Cristiano Ronaldo, the Biography’ which won the Football Book of the Year Award at the British Sports Book Awards and the Best Football Book of 2016 in Poland. He will be updating it to take in Ronaldo's return to Manchester United and his departure to Saudi Arabia in January 2024. In late 2017, Guillem published 'Mauricio Pochettino: Brave New World - Inside Pochettino's Spurs', which was shortlisted for the Football Book of the Year. It became a Sunday Times best-selling book, and the best-selling football book of 2018. His book 'Maradona: The Boy. The Rebel. The God.' was published in the summer of 2021, it went on to be a best seller in Argentina and was nominated for the book of the year in the UK and Spain and an official Barcelona FC club book on the captains of Barcelona, both men and women, will be published in 2024. Throughout his prolific career he has written or worked for The Telegraph, Marca, The Times, The Observer, Talk Sport, BBC, ITV, Cadena Ser, 442, World Soccer, Champions magazine, Football Index, and many other publications in Spain, Britain and worldwide. He has presented documentaries for CBS, BBC, Sky Sports on Leo Messi, Barcelona, Cesc Fabregas, and dozens more. In a prolific career he has interviewed just about anyone and everyone from the world of elite football, past and present including: Leo Messi, Neymar, Lewandowski, Mbappe, José Mourinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Pep Guardiola, Alex Ferguson, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Gareth Bale, Eddie Howe, Juan Mata, Mikel Arteta, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Virgil Van Dijk, Rafa Benítez, Samuel Etoo, David Villa, David Beckham, Raul, Xavi, Iniesta, Van Nistelrooy, Robben, Frank Lampard, Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher, Kenny Dalglish, Fernando Torres, Mikel Arteta, Frank Rijkaard, Gianluca Vialli, David Moyes, Xabi Alonso, Harry Redknapp, Mark Hughes, Gareth Southgate, Gary Neville, Roy Hodgson, plus a host of other influential figures in the game. He has come a long way since completing a journalism degree course at the Universitat Autònoma de Bellaterra (Barcelona) in the summer of 1991. After moving to Liverpool in the UK he supported himself by working as a barman, a baker and anything else that could earn him a living while trying to build a career as a journalist working freelance as a correspondent on the oldest newspaper in Europe, Diari de Barcelona, and the magazines Lecturas and Cambio 16. His footballing break came when in 1996, he was named English Football Correspondent for the Soccer magazine Don Balón and the following year he was contracted by Sky Sports to become the regular insider for the new highlight show which eventually became Revista de la Liga. In the popular Spanish football show he broke some of the biggest news of recent years: the arrival of David Beckham to Real Madrid and their signing of Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United, the departure of Fernando Torres from Liverpool to Chelsea, the departure of Cesc Fábregas from Arsenal to Barcelona, and many more. In the summer of 2013, he became a B licensed coach and he was approached by Antonio Tapia, Spanish coach, to become part of his technical staff that Tapia was putting together for possible work in Scotland. And while much of his life has been spent as a window into the world of top flight football, the role that fills him with joy like no other is as chairman of his beloved Biggleswade United a side who play in Step Nine of the English soccer pyramid. Away from football, He has written songs with two bands, Best Boy Grip and King and Scholes. Both EPs were published in the summer of 2014.
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  • Pep Guardiola cover art

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  • Messi cover art

    • Messi

    • The must-read biography of the World Cup champion, now fully updated
    • By: Guillem Balague
    • Narrated by: Peter Kenny
    • Length: 27 hrs and 53 mins
    • Release date: 25-06-2020
    • Language: English
    • 4 ratings

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  • Brave New World cover art

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  • Maradona: el pibe, el rebelde, el dios cover art

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