Jason Burt

"Jason was born in Dumfries on the Scottish Borders and spent most of his childhood in North Yorkshire. A graduate of Cambridge University, where he studied English, he always wanted to be a sports journalist - having been denied a career as a footballer by his lack of ability - but went into news reporting as he believed it was more worthy. Jason eventually realised the error of his ways, but is grateful for his first career and some of the amazing stories he worked on. After three years at The Liverpool Echo, a year with The Journal in Newcastle and three years at The Daily Mail - where he was the Home Affairs Correspondent - he joined The Independent and rose to become Executive Editor in charge of the overall news coverage and regularly edited the newspaper. But the football bug continued to bite and Jason decided he wanted to become a sports journalist after all, starting his career all over again with the first match he covered being Millwall against Grimsby Town in August 2002 (while he was still doing his day job; Steve Claridge scored twice in a 2-0 win for Millwall). The following year he took the plunge and became a full-time football writer with The Independent. In 2009, Jason joined The Daily Telegraph before, in 2012, becoming football correspondent of The Sunday Telegraph. Three years later he was appointed The Telegraph's chief football correspondent - covering both newspapers and the website. Jason has covered four World Cups, three European Championships and countless matches, travelling to more than 60 countries. Married with three children, Jason lives in Oxford. In his early fifties, he still tries to play football."