Gary Lineker to receive Vázquez Montalbán Prize for Journalism next Monday

Gary Lineker, the fifteenth winner of the Manuel Vázquez Montalbán International Prize for Journalism in the sports category will collect his prize next Monday 24 October at 12pm CEST in an event at the Auditori 1899 in Spotify Camp Nou. Around one hundred guests will be present, including FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta and the vice-president for the Institutional Area, Elena Fort, who will read the jury's report.

The president and the dean of the College of Journalists of Catalonia, Joan Maria Morros will present the prize, after which jury member and journalist Jordi Basté will be interviewing the former footballer.

The jury was made up of Mònica Terribas, Ramon Besa, Sergi Pàmies, Jordi Basté, Jaume Pujol-Galcerán, Ernest Folch, Borja de Riquer, Santiago Segurola and Josep Maria Solé-Sabaté, and declared in January of this year that its choice is Gary Lineker, who played for FC Barcelona from 1986 to 1989 and went into television after hanging up his boots. He is now a widely esteemed presenter on the BBC on such shows as Gary Lineker's Golden Boots and most especially the UK's extremely popular football highlights programme Match of the Day. He is currently an ambassador for LaLiga and is a pundit on LaLiga TV for viewers in Great Britain and Ireland.

The jury says that they chose Lineker because of his communicative ability, and his often ironic and critical take on the football industry, which was already clear in his playing days, including a number of famous quotes, such as his now legendary comment after England lost in the Italia '90 semi-finals: "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win."

Two categories

Given since 2004, the prize honours the memory of writer and journalist Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, and distinguishes leading figures in the world os journalism, with one category for 'culture and politics' and another for 'sport.'. The latter is awarded by the College of Journalists of Catalonia in association with FC Barcelona, and involves a 6,000 euro prize and a commemorative sculpture.

Previous winners in the sports category are as follows:

· 2004: Patrick Mignon
· 2005: Joaquim Maria Puyal
· 2006: Juan Villoro
· 2007: Simon Kuper
· 2008: Candido Cannavò
· 2009: Ramon Besa
· 2010: Eduardo Galeano
· 2011: Santiago Segurola
· 2012: Nick Hornby
· 2013: Sergi Pàmies
· 2014: Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade ‘Tostão’
· 2017: Michael Robinson
· 2018: Emanuela Audisio
· 2019: Jorge Valdano

There was no award in 2015 or 2016, and in 2020 the pandemic caused its cancellation.