Phil Ball

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Phil Ball (born 1957 in Vancouver, Canada) is a British writer based in San Sebastian/Donostia, Spain, where he has lived for the past eighteen years^[1]. Although Canadian by Birth, Ball grew up in Grimsby on the north east coast of England, having moved there as a child in 1967. As a youngster Ball supported Grimsby Town, saying "I was brought up on lower league football" ^[2]. After finishing University, Ball took an English teaching job in Oman. He moved to San Sebastian during the first Gulf War^[3].

By profession a teacher of English, Phil Ball is a life-long soccer enthusiast, and his first published book was the acclaimed Morbo: the story of Spanish football (2001). The book linked the traditional antagonisms in Spanish football (the “Morbo” of the title) to the regional, linguistic and political divisions of Spain as a country.

White Storm: 100 years of Real Madrid (2002) was the first English-language history of the famous Spanish soccer club, written to celebrate its centenary, and using a similar socio-political approach to that taken in Morbo.

An Englishman Abroad : Beckham’s Spanish adventure (2004) chronicled the first year of English soccer hero David Beckham’s spell at the Real Madrid club.

Phil Ball’s 2006 publication The Hapless Teacher’s Handbook marked a departure from sports writing, being a humorous autobiographical account of his own early years as a schoolteacher in England.

Phil Ball has contributed soccer articles to a number of sports publications, including When Saturday Comes, ESPNsoccernet, The New York Times^[4] and Financial Times. Phil Ball has also worked as an announcer for Sky Sports' la liga broadcast ^[5].