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Nick name
Bod -
Bio
Jesse Fink is the author of 15 Days In June: How Australia Became a Football Nation. He also currently writes for the Sunday Guardian and Al Jazeera. -
Favourite team/sport
Football/Socceroos
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Did you know?
Jesse was part of the delegation that petitioned Frank Lowy to return and create the FFA. -
Programme credit
Fox Sports, SBS, Inside Sport, Asia Times Online, FourFourTwo, The Roar, Soccerphile
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Full Biography
Jesse Fink (www.jessefink.com.au) is one of Asia's most read football writers.
Outside of his work for ESPN STAR Sports, he is writing his second book (to be published in late 2012 by Hachette Australia), contributes columns to The Sunday Guardian newspaper in Delhi and worldwide news network Al Jazeera in Doha.
Jesse lives in Sydney with his daughter, Billie.
Question & Answer with Jesse Fink
Q: How did you come to be in your current position?
Answer: I parted ways with Fox Sports in 2007 and immediately joined SBS, who were interested in picking up my “Half-Time Orange” column. The blog is often said to be the most popular football blog in Australia and I’ve always wanted to branch out into the Asian football sphere, so when this opportunity at ESPN Star Sports came up I jumped.
Q: Is reporting on sport the next best thing to playing it? And what was the pinnacle you reached in your favourite sport?
Answer: I was never much of a sportsman myself, more a person fascinated by what sport can teach us about who we are as human beings. I believe sport reflects so many things, especially national identity. It was a major theme in my book.
Q: What is your favourite sport outside of the one you are best known for? And how do you relax when you are not working?
Answer: Probably cricket. I was a big fan of the West Indies teams of the 1970s and 80s and recently have enjoyed watching the Sri Lankans and Indians. Players such as Sanath Jayasuriya and Virender Sehwag are breathtaking talents when they hit their straps.
I enjoy reading, exercising, drinking coffee and red wine, eating Thai food and spending time with my daughter Billie.
Q: Who was the biggest influence on your life, either within your career or outside?
Answer: My father Fred. He instilled in me a lot of values that I’ve kept throughout my life. The importance of integrity and being true to yourself being uppermost.
Q: Who is the most memorable individual you have met during your playing or working life?
Answer: Sir Edmund Hillary. I met him in 2003 around the time of the 50th anniversary of his Everest climb with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and we spent a very fascinating hour together in private. He was very open and honest and humble. It was a privilege to meet a man who was one of the giants of the 20th century.
Q: Do you/did you have a nickname?
Answer: Bod. I got it in high school after the wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura. It’s stuck.
Q: Tell us something we may not know about you..
Answer: There is an island in the Mergui Archipelago in Burma called Fink Island, which I believe is named after my ancestor, the 19th-century Arakan missionary John Christopher Fink. I want to visit it. I’m looking for someone to get me there by boat. Any takers?
