By day he covers the NBA for ESPN, but every September American sports journalist Marc Stein sets out on an annual pilgrimage to fuel his passion for The Football League.

Based in Dallas, the ESPN reporter's remit is ordinarily basketball but every year in the run-up to the start of the regular NBA season, Stein jets across the Atlantic for a week-long football marathon.

Now in his thirteenth year, Stein made the 9,500 mile round-trip to take in six matches which includes both the Sheffield and Manchester derbies.

"I came over to do my first tour in 1996," Stein explained. "It began a tradition that I've continued almost every year since.

"I started following football in 1980 when I was 11. A big part of my family is based in Israel and we used to go out there most summers.

"The only sport magazine you could get in English was Shoot, I was addicted straight away and learnt everything about football from that magazine.

"I picked Manchester City as my team because their kit was very similar to the one I wore for my youth side back in California."

Despite covering the glitz of the NBA Stein has steered away from the real glamour ties here in England, instead preferring to see more of the 'real football' and taking in places he's never been to before.

"I love places like Bloomfield Road and Boundary Park, the smaller, non-modernised grounds right in the heart of a neighbourhood. That is something that is unique about the English experience.

"I have fallen in love with The Football League because it has taken me to places I would have never seen such as Bury, Oldham, Sheffield and Coventry."

With his tour over for another year, Stein is back in Dallas preparing for the new NBA season which kicks-off in late October. But the football bug has buried its way into the American and he insists with 40 clubs under his belt, he will be back in 2010.

"I am very proud to have been to 40 grounds across the country. It is going to be hard getting to all 92 grounds with the limited time I can spend over here, but I am certainly going to try."

Stein's 2009 football tour:

Tuesday 15 September: Manchester City reserves v Wigan reserves
Wednesday 16 September: Blackpool V Newcastle
Thursday 17 September: Everton V AEK Athens
Friday 18 September: Sheffield United v Sheffield Wednesday
Saturday 19 September: Bolton v Stoke
Sunday 20 September: Manchester United v Manchester City