The Guardian
Ben Welch
Social Media Lead at ESPN
United Kingdom
Highly-skilled content creator with more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist, producer and editor across digital, social media, video and print.
United Kingdom
Highly-skilled content creator with more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist, producer and editor across digital, social media, video and print.
The Guardian
Goalscorers are special. Fans worship them, managers count on them and that gorgeous, frosted-tipped goal machine staring back from the mirror loves them unconditionally. In fairness, there is substance to this inflated perception. They're the match-winners. The top selling shirt in the club shop. The most expensive player on the pitch.
Paul Gascoigne charges towards the box, chasing an overhit pass from Steve McManaman. Aaron Winter looks to have intercepted the ball, but Gascoigne's elbows propel him past the would-be tackler and into a one-v-one with Danny Blind. While everyone is watching the ball, Teddy Sheringham quickly scans the field of play.
Kepa Arrizabalaga is on his knees, hands on hips, watching Southampton's Che Adams wheel away to an empty corner of Stamford Bridge. Celebratory screams echo around a vacant stadium haunted by a global pandemic. There are no comforting looks from Kepa's teammates, no shouts of encouragement, just an awkward air of inevitability.
Break her legs!" one parent shouts from the sidelines as an eight-year-old Kelly Smith dribbles past a pack of would-be tacklers. "Hack her down!" "Foul her!" "She shouldn't be playing!", the barrage continues. Unfazed, Smith scores goal after goal, leaving a trail of young boys grounded by her feints and shoulder drops.
The ability to pump oxygen around the body is the first thing to go. The heart can't beat fast enough to feed the grinding pistons. Fast-twitch muscle fibres start to deteriorate. Speed, power and agility lose their snap. Energy reserves deplete. Muscle mass retreats. Then there's the aches and pains, the stiff limbs and creaking joints.
Managers devise training sessions, draw up complex tactical plans, manage multimillion-pound budgets, field challenging questions from the world's press, shoulder the pressure of the club's fanbase - and yet, when it comes to managing human beings, some of them struggle. Why? Because relationships are complicated.
ESPN
They work in the shadows, away from prying eyes. They're the unseen army Premier League clubs are enlisting in pursuit of glory: the analysts, statisticians, scientists and ... surfers? Bobsledders? - Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, more (U.S.) Welcome to the world of the specialist coaches.
The whites of his eyes glow like headlights on full beam. Trickles of blood snake down his face through a soaked bandage, forming droplets that fall from his chin. The shirt, once a brilliant white, looks as if it's been used to mop an abattoir, and the Three Lions adorning its front are saturated by the wounds of war.
The problem takes hold when you start to think instead of feel. What was once instinctive now feels laboured. Doubt grips you like an anaconda, slowly crushing your confidence. One missed chance quickly turns into seven games without a goal. You can't switch off the noise.
Lisandro Martinez is in the middle of a photoshoot; fists clenched, glaring down the barrel of the lens, with a World Cup winners' medal dangling from his neck. Sitting calmly to one side is clubmate Katie Zelem. The Manchester United captain has already posed for pictures inside the same sci-fi set, minus an 18-carat slab of gold the size of a saucer.
In extra time of the 2020 Championship playoff final, with promotion to the Premier League on the line, Fulham's Joe Bryan took a free kick from the left wing. Everyone, including Brentford goalkeeper David Raya, was expecting a cross. But instead, Bryan whipped a wicked shot inside the near post.
Manchester City's Bernardo Silva recalled the moment that transformed his perception of the game. "Pep Guardiola called me to his office and he said: 'This is what I'm thinking, are you prepared to do it?'
Cody Gakpo is one of a growing number of footballers using their own individual analysis to keep improving, because just being good isn't good enough.
Arsenal's end to the season could have been traumatic, but the players told ESPN how they are moving on with the help of a dog and a positive attitude.
Man City's Guardiola, Spurs' Postecoglou and Brighton's De Zerbi are among the coaches preaching a style of play without traditional positions.
Premier League centre-backs are charged with a very different set of responsibilities to their predecessors. Here's how the role has changed.
In a sport dominated by muscle and mettle, an increasing number of soccer players use meditation to help them find focus in their game and in life.
For Christen Press, her two-year, quadruple-surgery road back to the soccer pitch wasn't just a physical battle, but an emotional one too.
Strikers were once judged by a single metric: goals. Today, their overall contribution is more valuable, and data analysis is behind this evolution.
From impassioned shouting to calm instructions, team captains and managers attempt to motivate their players by any means necessary. But which messages actually work?
FourFourTwo
Getting the right blend of characters in the dressing room can be the difference between humiliation and glory – FFT speaks to those seeking to prove that team chemistry is an exact science
Having long been the domain of men who are physically tough and emotionally impenetrable, the British game is now undergoing a major cultural shift – but why?
From a limited defender making up the numbers to the modern team’s hardest worker, no player’s role has changed more radically than that of the full-back. FFT salutes the wide boys
Champions League and European Championship medals in the bag make 2016 Cristiano Ronaldo’s most fruitful year to date. Next up, he says, is a plan to conquer Hollywood...
Tottenham’s leading man has had a stellar 2017, hitting 44 goals in 39 games for club and country. But how has the story of an NFL superstar inspired a quest for greatness?
Being a professional footballer? It’s living the dream. Turning out for the team you supported as a boy? That’s out of this world. Four hometown idols tell FFT exactly what it’s like to be a fan on the pitch...
With the January window upon us, FourFourTwo delves into the grey area at the centre of every transfer, and discovers why a ticking timebomb to one club is a risk worth taking for another…
Watford’s wing wizard Richarlison had to grow up fast on Brazil’s mean streets – that’s why the 20-year-old is so determined and ready to make the most of his big break
But as Eden Hazard tells FFT, what he wants even more than emulating Didier is to bring the trophies that matter most back to the Bridge. And he’s not the only Premier League star with a point to prove this season...
Following a breakthrough campaign for Manchester United in which he’s come of age as a game-changing No.10, the Warrington wonder is daring to dream about conquering the world in Russia – but be very afraid of his goal celebration if England get to the final...
Once bitten, twice shy? Not Nemanja Vidic. The Manchester United skipper has a Champions League score to settle with Messi – but first he has to deal with Ronaldo and Real Madrid
It’s been a while since the Gunners had a man who could mix it in midfield and have a pop from distance. Strap in... Granit’s here
Teddy Sheringham was 31 when he arrived at Old Trafford to replace Eric Cantona in 1997 – and things were hardly plain sailing at the start. In 2000-01, however, he defied even Alex Ferguson to become the oldest ever winner of the PFA Player of the Year award. He tells FourFourTwo about that magic campaign, 20 years on
Being a professional footballer? It’s living the dream. Turning out for the team you supported as a boy? That’s out of this world. Four hometown idols tell FFT exactly what it’s like to be a fan on the pitch...
Having Milly Rocked his way into a nation’s hearts with his showings for England in Russia, Jesse Lingard is back at Manchester United and now aiming to knock Manchester City off their perch
Three years ago, Ademola Lookman was playing Sunday League football. Now, aged 19, he’s already put Man City to the sword. And the adventure has only just begun…
Henrikh Mkhitaryan arrived in England with a big reputation, but Jose Mourinho never let him off the leash at Old Trafford. Now he’s got the chance to turn Arsenal ’s fortunes on their head and write his name in Gunners history
Already a target for his barnet and belligerence, now Marouane Fellaini is expected to be Moyes’ missing link. But after graduating from the Prem’s school of hard knocks, he’s ready
Screaming fans, big-money prizes and smelly sweat towels - welcome to the life of a pro FIFA player. With eSports closing the gap on the real deal, FourFourTwo heads to the FIFA Interactive World Cup to witness just who serious video games have got
Rotherham United defender Mark Bradley is laying on a physiotherapy plinth, with his shorts hiked up, exposing a leg punctured with needles. "I don't know what this does and I never really feel the difference, but I'm willing to try anything," the former Walsall man tells FourFourTwo, as Kanye West's Jesus Walks booms out of a sound system.
Life moves at a fast pace for the 20-year-old forward: in 2017 alone he's managed to break into Everton's first team, spearheaded international success with England and now has eyes on impressing new club boss Sam Allardyce. Not that he's fazed, mind...
When the final whistle blew in Nice on June 27 and a humiliated England were sent packing by Euro 2016 underdogs Iceland, many players would have sunk back into their comfy sofas and thought: "Thank God that's not me." Not West Ham 's Michail Antonio. He sat there stewing with frustration.
"I got to live my boyhood dream," Aaron Ramsey tells FFT as an uncontrollable smile cracks across his face. The Welshman tilts back on his chair and pauses as the memory of his extra-time winner at Wembley flickers through his mind.
Tim Flowers' face shimmered with sweat. "Don't talk to me about bottle," he said, eyes widening. "Don't talk to me about bottling it, because that's bottle out there, that's quality players giving their all."
The Blizzard
Is there a danger that academies can remove useful rough edges?
How understanding and using physical cues can take athletes to the next level
Stewart Downing on childhood loss, Boro glee, leaving Liverpool and the 2006 World Cup
What happens physiologically when we lose our rag?
SPORTbible
"I'm not a crazy man," insists Cristiano Ronaldo, looking SPORTbible dead in the eye. "I'm not obsessed with training, I'm obsessed with success, which is completely different." The five-time Ballon d'Or winner sits back in his chair, having delivered a riposte to tales of his near-mythical training sessions.
Having overcome personal tragedy, England's Fran Kirby is in defiant mood as she looks to make history and inspire the next generation of players A 14-year-old Fran Kirby has just been told she lacks mental resilience by her coaches at Reading's centre of excellence.
"When you go through hard times it can be difficult to see when you'll be back doing what you love again," Callum Wilson tells SPORTbible. "Having come out the other side, I see every day on the training field as a blessing. I take nothing for granted."
Fabinho can't hold back the huge smile breaking out across his face. "Yes," he laughs. "He always hugs us and yes, they're nice hugs." Liverpool's midfield sentry is referring to the tactile approach of his affectionate manager, Jurgen Klopp.
"They're both bad," says Ilkay Gundogan, pursing his lips as SPORTbible asks him to compare dressing-room dressing-downs from his current manager, Pep Guardiola and his former boss, Jurgen Klopp. "Very loud and direct. I wouldn't want to let either of them down. They're both very demanding and intense."
Christian Benteke pauses. "Yeah," he says, he does think he could do a job in Liverpool's front line. He pauses again before offering an explanation. "It's easy to say now because I play for Palace and they play for Liverpool, but when you train every day with the same players and the manager believes in you, it's easier."
David Luiz can't help but smile. "We're gonna win the league mmmaaaannnn!" screams an Arsenal fan through a small megaphone. "We're gonna win the league, I'm telling you dat right now," the supporter continues in a poorly imitated Brazilian accent that bears a striking resemblance to that of fictional drug lord Tony Montana (who's Cuban).
"Wow," exclaims Billy Sharp, puffing out his cheeks. "I couldn't have written it any better." 'It' being the 88th minute between Bournemouth and Sheffield United on Saturday, August 10, 2019. The Blades were 1-0 down at Dean Court with two minutes to play when they won a free-kick in a dangerous position.
Yaya Toure is looking at the floor. "Pre-season," he says, puffing out his cheeks, "is not something I like at all." The Manchester City star pauses. "But, we need it because we need to prepare well for a long season." His caveat says one thing, his shaking head says another: The truth.
