Martin Samuel, three times the SJA Sports Writer of the Year, is to join the Daily Mail, it has been announced.

According to one report, Samuel could be on a salary of £400,000 when he moves to Derry Street from Wapping, where he has worked for The Times and News of the World since 2002. Most recently, he has worked as chief football correspondent at The Times.

The Mail’s signing follows its loss of chief sports correspondent Paul Hayward, who is to join the Guardian and Observer later this year.

Samuel’s weekly columns, usually on football but also ranging across other sports, is among the best read features on the title.

In March, he became the first to win the SJA’s Sports Writer of the Year award three years in succession. Hayward was runner-up in the poll of national newspaper sports editors.

In praising Samuel one judge said: “He took the plunge back into daily papers but still maintained – even surpassed – the remarkable quality and clarity that has hallmarked his writing and thinking for many years.”

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