ALL ABOUT ESM

European Sports Media was founded on June 9th, 1989, in Barcelona with the intention of being an international body for serious journalism. Since then a lot has changed in our world. Print is still important, and always will be, but online activity is increasingly important.

Nevertheless, the founding principles of ESM remain.

Most ESM members are active online as well as in print. In the area of new media, international co-operation is just as important.

ESM is now recognised throughout the European football family. We are the owners of the official top-scorer ranking, the ESM Golden Shoe. Editors compile the rankings on a weekly basis and distribute them every Tuesday during the season.

Traditionally, the winner of the ESM Golden Shoe receives his trophy mid-September at his own stadium. Around that event, he is available for an interview by the ESM members. Recently, UEFA and ESM decided to create a new award for the outstanding player during the European season. The official title is UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. ESM takes care of the voting and administration and UEFA invites the three nominees to a ceremony around the time of the Champions League draw. The same procedure created the UEFA Best Women’s Player in Europe Award, also to administrate by ESM.

ESM is also guest of honour at FIFA’s World Player of the Year Election because the award and ceremony began as an idea from ESM. In addition, we organise the ESM Eleven. Each month, the ESM magazines select a team of the 11 best players from the European leagues. All members have a duty to publish the monthly selection.

We regularly organise joint interviews with interesting personalities from the international football scene.

We ask the members to organise meetings by rotation, each with an interesting guest and football theme.

Furthermore ESM participates as a member of the jury in the yearly nomination of the European Football Supporters Award (EFSA). This is an initiative of the city of Brussel, after the disaster in the Heysel Stadium (1985). Also the European Parliament participates in this organisation. Candidates to win this Award should play an important role by combating displays of racism and xenophobia.

Because of the growing demand for ESM, we have decided to open up ESM to more quality members. A new member must be accepted by at least a two-thirds majority of ESM members. Jörg Jakob (kicker) is elected mid 2022 next president of ESM.