Guillem Balague

Welcome

Welcome

 

Guillem is an award-winning Football Author, Journalist & Presenter who works regularly for BBC Radio 5 Live, LaLiga TV and Spanish newspaper Sport. Many of you may also know him from his previous role at Sky Sports, where he was a key fixture of their Spanish football coverage for over 20 years, known for his regular appearances on Sky Sports News, TV Show "Revista de La Liga”, his punditry work and being the goto man for anything relating to the Spanish transfer market.

He is the best known face of the official coverage of LaLiga TV due to his two decades of coverage of the Spanish league and his 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 the bestselling "A Season on the Brink", an insider's account of Liverpool's 2004-05 Champions' League winning campaign, updated later with the 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 the last eight commercial events of Leo Messi, a collaboration that started in 2013.

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.

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 latest 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.

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.

Guillem has most recently interviewed the following personalities: Leo Messi, Neymar, Lewandowski, Mbappe, José Mourinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Pep Guardiola, Alex Ferguson, Carles Puyol, Gareth Bale, Eddie Howe, Juan Mata, Héctor Bellerín, Mikel Arteta, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, 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 completed his journalism course at the Universitat Autònoma de Bellaterra (Barcelona) in the summer of 1991. Thereafter, he moved to Liverpool where he worked as a correspondent on the oldest newspaper in Europe, Diari de Barcelona, and the magazines Lecturas and Cambio 16.

In 1996, he was named English Football Correspondent for the Soccer magazine Don Balón. And in 1997, 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 has broken 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 is working towards the A licence. Guillem was approached by Antonio Tapia, Spanish coach, to become part of his technical staff that Tapia was putting together for possible work in Scotland.

He is the Chairman of Biggleswade United, a role that fills him with joy like no other.

He has written songs with two bands, Best Boy Grip and King and Scholes. Both EPs were published in the summer of 2014.