Friends with the finest footballers on the planet, a journalist, author and presenter, Barcelona-born Guillem Balague these days calls Hitchin home. At the Biggleswade club he is passionate about, Layth Yousif spoke to the engaging expert about his surprising career.
IT’S NOT EVERYDAY the director of a football club picks you up from your house on a cold morning and happily drives you to its stadium to conduct the interview you’ve arranged. Nor is it commonplace for a hugely-respected and well-known broadcaster to make you a mug of tea and ask after your family once you get there. Or, that a journalist with nearly a million followers on Twitter mucks in by helping move a heavy table in the clubhouse before you sit down to talk.
But Herfordshire’s Guillem Balague is not your average football fan. In fact the Barcelona-born 46-year-old isn’t easy to categorise at all.
Guillem writes for Fleet Street broadsheets including The Times and Observer. He also appears as a pundit on Sky Sports’ Spanish football show Revista de la Liga and pens reports for top Madrid newspaper AS. If that wasn’t enough, he is the author of best-selling books on Liverpool FC, Pep Guardiola, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Oh, and he also makes time for his directorship of Biggleswade United in Bedfordshire.
So how did the Catalan end up in his adopted home of Hitchin, helping to run a club in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division?
At Biggleswade’s Second Meadow ground he says, ‘I arrived in Liverpool in 1991 after I’d finished my journalism course in Barcelona. I went to Liverpool through Erasmus – a pan-European student swap scheme – after my parents rented a room to a Liverpool lad. I said to him, “Can I come over and stay with you?” and he said, “Yes no problem”. I went for three months and ended up staying a year-and-a-half.’
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March 2017 من Hertfordshire Life.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March 2017 من Hertfordshire Life.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Explosive history
With bonfire night this month, author Harry Smee recounts the explosive story of his family’s firework company, Brock’s, creators of wonders and war-changing weapons
A Day In The Life Of... A Jewellery Designer
Laurie McGrath, senior designer at Harriet Kelsall bespoke jewellery in Halls Green, gives an insight into her working day
Sniffig out clues in THE ASHES
Meet the fire investigation dogs securing convictions against arsonists and murderers who otherwise may go free
The greatest traveller
Exploring ancient civilisations and rising powers, Violet CressyMarcks became the most travelled woman of her age. Fifty years after her death we look at her incredible life
Return of the Queen of Romance
Twenty years after the death of record-breaking novelist Dame Barbara Cartland, Gillian Thornton talks passions, plots and a new audience with her son at the family home in Essendon
In bed with CELEBS
Marking its 70th year, Welham Green soft furnishings company Ashley Wilde has grown from a pile-it-high, sell-it-cheap business into an industry leader with A-list partnerships
Roam with a view
We may not have coastline or mountains, but Herts has beautiful views all the same, if you know where to look
Saving Mrs Tiggy-Winkle
The secret life of a much-loved British mammal and simple steps we can take at home to stop its extinction
A walk down Surreal Street
Paul Crowley draws on his graphic designer’s eye to capture scenes from the country to the street, all tinged with surreality
5 minutes with
Carole Spiers, Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce member and founder of International Stress Awareness Week
