The voice of English football, sheepskin coat, statistic notebook, and an encyclopaedic love of the game
Football In memoriam (2023)For fifty years John Motson's voice was the soundtrack of English football. Cup Finals, World Cups, Ronnie Radford at Hereford, Ricky Villa at Wembley, Motty called them all with the same breathless delight he brought to a wet Tuesday night in the fourth division.
Born in Salford in 1945, Motson joined the BBC in 1968 and made his Match of the Day debut in 1971. What began as a lucky draw to commentate on Hereford United's FA Cup replay against Newcastle in 1972 turned into a career that spanned more than 2,000 matches, including ten World Cups and 29 FA Cup Finals. He covered every England tournament game from 1972 until his final BBC match in 2018.
Motson became as famous for his sheepskin coat and his spiral bound notebook as for his voice. He was the commentator who would arrive at a reserve team fixture with two pages of notes on the substitute left back, and who once said on air that the more he thought about it, the more he thought this really was a match that would live in the memory. He was right almost every time.
Away from the microphone he was warm, courteous and genuinely humble, a man who never quite believed his luck at being paid to watch football for a living. He was appointed OBE in 2001 and continued to appear on radio, podcasts and the speaker circuit well into his seventies.
John Motson died in February 2023 at the age of 77. At Steam Wine Bar his appearances are remembered as a generous, funny tour through the greatest matches English football ever produced, told by the man who had the best seat in the house for every one of them.
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