Legendary sports writer John Mann dies at 89

Legendary sports writer John Mann returned from the 1974 World Cup clutching a shirt signed by Pele, only to discover a friend’s wife had popped it in the washing by mistake.

“Well the signature came off and as you can imagine, it was devalued substantially,” said his son Martin.

Mr Mann, who has died aged 89, had been covering the World Cup in West Germany for the Daily Express. Pele did not play in the tournament but was a match commentator.

“He was delighted to be able to get a shirt signed by the great Pele. I think it was the 1974 World Cup. When he brought it home to Broughty Ferry he wanted people to see it and lent it to a school teacher friend to show to his pupils,” said Martin.

“It was sitting on a chair when the teacher’s wife noticed a mark on it and put it through the wash. It was one of the more memorable stories to arise from the several World Cups he covered in his career as a football writer.”

John Mann was the Daily Express’s football writer covering the east coast teams of Aberdeen, Dundee and Dundee United. He began his career with the Press and Journal and later worked for The Courier.

In his journalistic career he covered some of the greatest moments of the three teams and often had lively relationships with managers, in particular the late great Jim Mclean.

“It felt like Jim had a hotline to our house. If he did not like something dad had written he would be on the phone bellowing,” said Martin.

John Mann was born in Aberdeen in 1932 where his father, George, was a joiner and his mother Mary was a housewife.

There were four children, Jean, John, George and Molly living in a two-room flat on the top floor of 4 Stafford Street, Aberdeen.

“Dad left school at 15 and in due course attended an amateur football match and then submitted a match report to the Press and Journal,” said Martin.

“They were so impressed they offered him a job. That would have been in the late 1940s. It was during his time with the Press and Journal that he was called up for national service.

“He was groundcrew with the RAF based in Hereford and then returned to Aberdeen.”

He met his wife Helen at a tennis club in Aberdeen when he was 15 and the couple married in 1955. Mr Mann then moved to Dundee to work for The Courier.

“It was during the 1960s that dad went to work for the Scottish Daily Express, which was based in Glasgow but he continued to live in Broughty Ferry and covered the east coast teams,” said Martin.

“Over the years he covered some of the glory days and glorious European adventures at Aberdeen as well as Dundee United and Dundee.”

He covered at least three World Cup finals – West Germany in 1974, Argentina in 1978 and Spain in 1982.

After his time with the Daily Express, Mr Mann went to work with the Daily Star and retired in 1990, although he continued to contribute match reports to The Observer.

Mr Mann’s wife Helen died in 1987 after a long battle with illness and latterly his companion was Catherine Macfarlane.

“Dad was a regular at the Fort in Broughty Ferry where he was friends with John Black senior. He used to go on golf trips with the pub and played but could only be described as an occasional golfer,” said Martin.

“Due to Covid restrictions we’d been unable to visit dad in hospital, although I did manage to get Cath in to see him for an emotional visit the day before he died.”

Mr Mann is survived by his son Martin, daughter Alison and two grandsons, Graeme and Alan.

HOT LINE: John Mann was a highly-regarded writer.