Sportspeople Who Move Into the Media: Interview with BBC Radio Wales commentator and Former Wales International footballer Nathan Blake
- 30090951
- Apr 23, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: May 6, 2025
Second-year sports journalism student Michael Addison interviewed former Wales international and BBC Radio Wales commentator Nathan Blake to discuss his career after retiring from professional football.
Blake retired from football in 2006, working away from the sport before starting to commentate for BBC Wales around 2012, becoming a regular fixture on the radio for the organisation, covering games for the national side as well as the four Welsh-based EFL sides.
Aside from just commentary, Nathan has also done presenting and podcasting roles, including the ‘Feast of Football’ podcast he contributes to for the BBC.
The route for many professional footballers can vary with a career in the media common, compared to the coaching route, taking a break away from the industry for a few years before going back in to do commentary.
During his hiatus away from football, Nathan did charity work and business work, never imagining he would have gone down this route.
Discussing the shift from playing to commentating, he found it an easy adjustment in terms of analysing games from the stands, crediting a coach from his youth regarding the understanding of football, adopting that knowledge into his analysis.
In his commentary, Nathan says that his job is not to criticise, instead finding a solution to make amends when a player may underperform, citing matters off the pitch as a reason to a player’s struggles on the pitch.
One venture Nathan has created is the Almanac, with the help of his best friend Tim Wilson; a helpful tool for football commentators for pre-match preparations, having the access to up-to-date data to make research easy.
Nathan’s advice is that the people you know is as important as what you know, with the connections you make can give you the opportunities you are looking for to make it in the sports media industry.
Below is the interview in full:
Comments