Scott Murray Interview
Scott Murray was nominated for the Best Football Journalist award. We asked him to talk about the awards, how 2010 had turned out for Scott, future plans and of course, who he would vote for in the awards. Here’s the interview:
1) You’ve been nominated for Best Football Journalist, chosen by both fans and industry experts, how does it feel?
It’s an honour to be mentioned in the same breath as all these fantastic journalists. I’m genuinely humbled. Thank you!
2) What kind of year has 2010 been for Scott Murray?
Although I do most of my work at the bidding of the Guardian – the Joy of Six column and live minute-by-minute reports, a satisfying mix of football past and present – I’m freelance so there’s been a lot of procrastinating: watching Sky Sports News on loop, cooking elaborate lunches, taking long baths, that sort of thing. I’m well fed and very clean.
The World Cup kept things ticking over, I suppose, although there was a slight not-as-good-as-it-used-to-be vibe about it. Again. In non-football
news, my book Phantom of the Open, the true story of Maurice Flitcroft, who chanced his way into the 1976 Open golf championship despite having never played a round in his life before, came out. It’s a hilarious tale of cat-and-mouse with The Man, and I just hope me and my co-writer Simon Farnaby have done it justice. Ach, disingenuous modesty won’t get me anywhere: I think we have. You’d enjoy it.
3) What do you think has been the key factor in your success?
The key factor in my what?
4) If you were casting a vote for your any of your fellow nominees, who would it be?
It’s a toss-up between Sid Lowe and Jonathan Wilson, who are both majestic. I suppose it depends whether I’m in the mood for some hilarious up-to-the-minute Iberian chat, or an in-depth analysis of how the Kiev cybernetics revolution of the 1970s had a knock-on effect in Serie A ten years later. I can’t find a coin, which is probably just as well.
5) What’s next for Scott Murray?
Along with Rob Smyth of Guardian fame, and Georgina Turner of Sports Illustrated, I’m setting up a new site called Retro MBM. We’ll be writing minute-by-minute reports of classic matches in football history. I guarantee the full 90 minutes of the Battle of Santiago is even funnier than the famous clips of Chileans swinging haymakers upside Italian heads suggest. In lieu of us actually getting the thing up and running, which we hope to do by mid-March, you can follow us on Twitter, where a world of classic clips already awaits you.
You can vote for Scott Murray in the following award category:
Back to the main 2010 Soccerlens Awards nominee interviews page.
Topics: Interviews
