The death of John Motson is the death of the last ‘voice of a sport’

No modern commentator can become synonymous with a sport in the way Motson did with football

The sudden death of John Motson – the BBC’s legendary football commentator – at the age of 77 on Thursday has prompted plenty of fond reminiscence around ‘Motty’s best moments, iconic quotes and most famous gaffes.

Anyone over a certain age, with at least a passing interest in football, can picture Motson in his sheepskin coat, lip mic thrust into his face and still hear his boyishly enthusiastic tones waxing lyrical about something happening on the pitch in front of him.

His endless supply of niche and almost arcane statistics, in an era where finding those stats was infinitely harder than just logging on to Wikipedia or doing a quick Google search, became his calling card.