Rob Hawthorne is a football commentator currently working for Sky Sports. He is most notable for his commentating along side Andy Gray in the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final in Istanbul. His media career began at the age of 14; after partcipating in a local radio talent spotting competition, he was taken on by Beacon Radio in Wolverhampton as a member of the team for the Sunday morning show, "Kid's Stuff" Later he moved to commentate on Saturday afternoon football for BBC Radio WM, before becoming Sport Editor for BBC Radio Humberside, and Head of Sport at BBC Radio York.
He then became one of the regular commentators on live broadcasts for BBC Radio 5, shortly after its launch, before moving on to BBC Radio Five Live with the rest of its sports team in 1994. After senior commentators Mike Ingham and Alan Green, Hawthorne and colleague Ron Jones formed the second 'tier' of commentators. During his time on radio Hawthorne commentated on several Division One Play-off finals, the Scottish Cup Final, a number of FA Cup and League Cup semi-finals and two major international tournements - Euro 92 and World Cup 94. His first live television experience came in 1991, when he covered Brazilian championship football games for Screensport. Finally, his move to television was completed as he became part of the Sky Sports commentary team at the launch of the F.A. Premier League; his first game was Leeds United v Liverpool in August 1995. He has since covered Champions League, Football League, FA Cup and League Cup matches, as well as regularly commenatating on Republic of Ireland international matches. He has now established himself as one of Sky Sports top commentators. In addition to the famous Champions League final of 2005, Hawthorne has been given several opportunities on big Premiership matches, including Chelsea vs Liverpool in January 2007 and Manchester United vs Liverpool (both games) during the same season. As yet however, he has not been able to usurp Martin Tyler as Sky's number one commentator. For the 2007/08 season Rob Hawthorne (teaming up with Gary Macallister) will commentate all Rangers matches in the Uefa Champions League until they win/knocked out.
