Who is Roshane Thomas?
He currently works as the West Ham correspondent for The Athletic, a rising subscription based sports website that provides readers with the in depth stories relating to their club.
Roshane caught the ‘journalism bug’ at 19-years-old while doing work experience for the South London Press. The first news article he wrote for them became the lead story on the front cover of the local newspaper.
Proud of what he had achieved, Thomas set out to build up his experience, working at Peterborough United and as a phone operator at talkSPORT where his first day included a phone call to the former England striker, Emile Heskey.
Nowadays, he is one of the most reliable journalists for all West Ham related news, having done interviews with multiple first team players and being the first to break the story of David Moyes’ re-appointment as manager following the sacking of Manuel Pellegrini:
“Anything to do with West Ham – I’m the guy.” Thomas exclaimed, in a Teams chat with UEL Sports Journalism Students on Wednesday (9th December).
On His Role
Before securing his job at The Athletic, he considered a career change, nearly becoming a Police Detective.
However, he got a phone call from a fellow journalist alerting him to the job as The Athletic’s West Ham correspondent and he’s never looked back.
He produces three pieces of in depth content a week on West Ham and a podcast called ‘U Irons’.
A typical day for him is waking up early in the morning, seeing what is in the West Ham news cycle on that day to ensure he is up to date and if there is “anything to alert the desk on.”
When he writes, his focus is primarily on trying to impress, “the desk and get good feedback from West Ham fans to try to create a debate.”
In a recent article written by him on whether it’s time to “unleash Said Benrahma”, who is yet to start a match for West Ham but has impressed off the bench following his transfer from Brentford, created a lot of chatter on social media about team selection.
The Award Winning Michail Antonio Story
Around Christmas time in 2019, Hammers striker, Michail Antonio, crashed his Lamborghini into the front garden of someone’s house while dressed as a snowman.
Roshane smelt a good story and his determination pushed him to follow his gut and attempt to get an interview with the owners of the property – it paid off:
“I saw the Mum outside, I said, hey, I’m a West Ham reporter for The Athletic. Any chance we could have a chat, but she said no,” Roshane explains. “I tried to show a bit of personality, it’s Boxing Day so I asked how was the family dinner? Did you get good presents?” in his attempt to get an interview.
She eventually invited him in and he thought, “Bingo, I’ve got the story here.”
On Being A Young Black Journalist
Recently, Roshane’s fantastic work saw him appear on the Football Black List’s ‘Ones to Watch.’
Aged 27, “You get used be the youngest and one of the only black journalists. Even now at West Ham, I’m one of a few. I’d like to see more. When I was going for job interviews at The Telegraph for a graduate scheme, I was the only black journalist there, and in a sad way my confidence had already been knocked. Now there are a lot more black journalists up and coming and hopefully they can get a chance to show they are good enough.”
Advice to Aspiring Journalists
Roshane studied journalism at university, but also believes, “It’s so important to have work placements under your belt.”
He managed to gain his experience through a variety of placements such as at the Non League Paper and even at Hello! Magazine despite admitting it really wasn’t his cup of tea.
However, valuable lessons were learnt and it was great for building up his CV and networks: “Go out of your comfort zone, you’ll gain contacts as a result of that and people will invite you back.”
Another tip he gives is to not be scared of “being annoying – one email is not enough.”
As a student, Roshane wrote many emails to leading journalists like, Henry Winter, Darren Lewis, Oliver Kay, Sam Wallace and many more asking for advice and sending them examples of his work.
Some of these esteemed sports writers responded and that gave him the confidence to push on: “Without them I don’t even know if I’d be where I am right now.”
Roshane’s commitment and motivation has made him the successful journalist that he is today, and is a lesson to all aspiring journalists out there. Roshane Thomas (@RoshaneSport) / Twitter
