My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain at what drives sports stars to greatness. This week we speak to former England and Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster about his Wrexham heroics, ups and downs and becoming a YouTuber.
My happiest years were at West Brom
It was at a time in my life when my kids had just been born. I was living local. We were settled as a family.
I was there for a good eight years, it was eight years of Premier League football as well.
Don’t get me wrong, there were ups and downs, but I was surrounded by really nice, hard-working, down to earth people.
I’m a big believer that when you’re happy in life, you play your best football.
I wanted to get out of Manchester United
It was too much, too big. I’m not ashamed to say that. I remember being so nervous going into every game thinking “don’t make a mistake”.
It’s funny because if I bump into anyone who recognises me, I played for England, played for Manchester United, played nearly 400 Premier League games and they all say that penalty save for Wrexham was incredible.
I’ve watched the video back a few times. It still gives me goosebumps. Those moments stay with you for life.
I didn’t have a clue about YouTube
I didn’t know how to start a YouTube channel. This is something I’ve had to learn. It’s a brand new skill set, and I’ve had to learn how to do it all through trial and error.
We’re not one of the big boys. We haven’t had massive investment from betting companies. We’ve got to do it all ourselves.
Everything is self-funded. I love the fact that we can do it on our own terms. We get to call the shots.
If I hadn’t been a footballer I would’ve been a policeman
I’d have done something that required me to be active. My daughter is 17, she’s doing her A-Levels, and she’s at a point where she has to pick a uni course, but she hasn’t got a clue what she wants to do. I don’t think anyone knows what they want to do at 17.
My son wants to be a rugby player. I’ve met a lot of the players, and I’ve seen how they are as people, and they’ve got a lot more respect for people than footballers. So I’m happy he’s trying his hardest to play rugby.
My kids hate the YouTube stuff, honestly. They absolutely hate it because their mates send them clips if I say something funny. And they’re like, “Dad, don’t say things like that.”
I fully ruptured my rotator cuff in my shoulder
I had so many setbacks, whether it was injuries or loss of form or not being in the team, but the worst injury came after I retired.
I did a work thing about six months ago. It was for Emirates at St George’s Park, and it involved me playing in a six-a-side or whatever. It was some of the worst pain I’ve had for 48 hours. I dived for the ball, I landed hard and my shoulder just went pop. I’d never had a shoulder injury before. I was genuinely white as a ghost.
I’m an active guy, I love to be on the move, I like my bike and I like playing golf. And I couldn’t do anything for five months. I had to have a massive operation. It was miserable. The pain was unbearable.
The best player I played with?
It would have to be Paul Scholes. He was just effortlessly good. I’ve never seen a player strike the ball so cleanly.
And he had a nasty little bite in him, which made him even better. Because if you’ve got that nasty bite in you, like Wayne Rooney had, that can amplify your game like you wouldn’t believe. That little naughtiness makes you a much better player.
People would think it’s probably Cristiano Ronaldo, but it’s not. Scholes was a joke. It all just came naturally to him.
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I think if you asked him, deep down, he didn’t know what he was getting himself into. He didn’t really know anything about football or how it worked, the organisation, the business. He just wanted to help his mate Rob [McElhenney] out.
He is a lovely guy who is super enthusiastic about Wrexham. And because he cares, people can see he cares. That is the most important thing.
They have done an unreal job. Everybody sees it as a massive success but – and they won’t mind me saying this – they’ve made loads of errors along the way. But they should be so proud of what they’ve achieved, because it’s really hard to go into something when you don’t know what you’re doing.
Ben Foster was speaking ahead of new content from CGK Studios, the content production company behind The Fozcast and The Cycling GK. Co-founded by Foster, CGK Studios specialises in authentic, long-form storytelling across sport and culture, with The Fozcast ranking among the UK’s most popular sports podcasts. Episodes are available weekly on Spotify and YouTube.
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