James Montague is an award-winning author and journalist from Chelmsford, Essex. He has reported from over 100 countries and unrecognised territories for the BBC World Service, the New York Times, The Athletic and Delayed Gratification, amongst others. His latest book, Engulfed: How Saudi Arabia Bought Sport, and the World, was published in March 2025 and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize.
Known for his fearless reporting style, Montague cut his teeth on his first book – When Friday Comes about the place of football in the Middle East (Mainstream Books 2008, reprinted by deCoubertin books in 2011 and Ebury in 2022). It won him the “Best New Writer” award at the British Sports Book of the Year Awards. His next book, 31-Nil: On the Road with Football’s Outsiders (Bloomsbury) was a remarkable odyssey-like journey to discover the lengths to which players and teams would go to qualify for the World Cup. It included that now-legendary American Samoa team, now the subject of a film starring Michael Fassbender and Elisabeth Moss, and won the 2015 Football Book of the Year Award at the British Sports Book Awards.
His third book, The Billionaires’ Club (Bloomsbury) again won Football Book of the Year in 2018 whilst his fourth 1312: Among the Ultras – a journey with football’s most extreme fans (Ebury) was an international bestseller translated into eight languages.