MA

Maurício Alencar

Politics & Economics Reporter — City AM

Politics and Economics Reporter at City AM, covering breaking news, exclusives and features across both print and video.

Previously freelanced across The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Athletic, BBC HARDtalk, The Daily Mail and The Daily Beast.

Portuguese — Native Spanish — Fluent French — Advanced
Selected work

Best Freelance Stories

The Sunday Telegraph Islamic State-supporting illegal immigrant avoided detention over mental health Mar 2025
City AM Roman Abramovich and Ukraine: Where is the Chelsea sale money two years on? May 2024
The Athletic Estevão Willian: Chelsea's €34m signing who shrugged off 'Little Messi' nickname to star in Brazil Jun 2024
The Times Oxford takes £130,000 in deal with Xi's alma mater May 2024
The Times AI chatbot Chai encourages underage sex, suicide and murder Oct 2023
The Athletic City Football Group's purchase of Bahia: The inside story May 2023
The Athletic How Brazil's far right 'kidnapped' the most famous shirt in football Oct 2022
Career

Experience

City AM

Politics & Economics Reporter (prev. Economics Reporter) · Mar 2025 – Present

Freelance

Oct 2022 – Mar 2025

  • The Athletic — Features from Brazil: Bolsonaro, City Football Group, Pelé's death, Estevão
  • The Times & Sunday Telegraph — Exclusives on AI chatbots, asylum seekers, Oxford-China links
  • Daily Mail — Undercover 'cash for crash' scam investigation over five months
  • BBC HARDtalk — Researcher, Mondays to Fridays; plus Newshour and Today programme
  • The Sunday Times — Regular newsdesk assistant: wires, breaking news, sub-editing
  • The Daily Beast — Weekly news reporter covering the US 2024 presidential elections
Recognition

Awards & Honours

2024

Top three, Foreign Press Association — video package on Argentina's economic crisis and Javier Milei

2022

Winner, Clive Taylor Prize for Sports Journalism — Geddes Trust

2022–24

Shortlisted: FWA, AIPS Sports Media Awards, Freelance Journalism Awards, SPA Best News Story

Academic

Education

City, University of London

MA International Journalism (Broadcast)

Distinction

2023 – 2024

Oxford University, St Edmund Hall

BA English Language and Literature

First Class

2020 – 2023