When Bloomsbury Football met Eddie Nketiah

During the second Lockdown of 2020, the Bloomsbury Football family were blessed to have shared the company of England under-21 record holder and Arsenal striker, Eddie Nketiah.

Lockdown has been a perilous game especially for our children, so we were thankful to afford the Bloomsbury faithful a much-needed escape. With huge thanks to our very own coach, Rugare Musendo, through the powers of technology Nketiah sat down with us to answer questions from all age groups of the Bloomsbury community.

Rugare is a very close friend of Nketiah, growing up together travelling to and playing in the Chelsea academy (yes, he was a Blue before he became a Gunner!) from under-12s, now even living not so far from each other!

It was a conversation discussing: what it takes to become a Premier League striker and the difficulty of an upcoming footballer’s journey, whether nerves are still felt before games, what the manager’s key values are, insight into the position of attacker, how it felt to break the England under-21 record, football’s beautiful diversity, and what separates those who do make it from those that don’t. An hour richly filled with inspiring snippets of advice, enveloped by one key facet: self-belief.

From the get-go, Nketiah’s humility was transparent. Starting the session by classily apologising for his lateness having just returned from Arsenal training, and also declaring the occasion as an ode to his friend Rugare and also as a thank-you for allowing himself, and us, the opportunity to speak to our kids, just beginning their journeys in the game.

After explaining his roots as a Lewisham boy, how his Dad remains his number one fan, and how, in another world, the numbers concerned with his career wouldn’t be related to goals, but to maths instead, Nketiah rattled home the importance of commitment and dedication. Speaking on what it takes to become a striker in England’s top division he exclaimed, “it takes a lot of hard work and self-belief, you have to believe in yourself, and you have to believe in your talent. There’s going to be a lot of tribulations along the way and people that will obviously tell you that you might not be good enough or that you need to do this. But you need to believe in yourself. If you have the ability, and mentality, you’ll be able to make it”.

Having been released by Chelsea at the age of 14, Nketiah truly demonstrates the significance of a strong mentality. When asked about how hard it was to become a professional footballer, the same message was echoed, “even with a setback early in your career, you have to just keep going and keep pushing. Getting through at Arsenal, it’s a top club and a very big Premier League club: so there’s always going to be competition, a lot of players in your position, a lot of people that are waiting to get your opportunity. So, it was a difficult journey for me personally, and I’m sure for a lot of the players that play here now, but it took a lot of hard work”.

That exact attitude, a powerful motivator for our Bloomsbury boys and girls. When questioned on if he still gets nervous before games, Nkeitah showed us exactly why his attitude has taken him so far, so quickly: “I’m always eager to do well. Obviously sometimes, it is a lot of pressure playing at the highest level. But I tried to stay relaxed. Because I feel like that’s when I’m at my best. I think, if you put in the work all week you should be confident and happy going into the game to be able to deliver”. At every level: preparation, mentality, and delivery is what matters.

What else matters at every level? Respect. Nketiah revealed to us that the non-negotiables of his manager Mikel Arteta are, “working hard every day. Making sure that you put the team in front of yourself and having respect for your peers and the people around the club. Whether that be staff, whether it be the kitman, whether that be your teammate or the physios, it’s just about respecting each other and creating a good environment”. Heartening, to hear that what a two-time FA Cup winner and manager of one of the biggest clubs in the globe, let alone the UK, regards as immutable, is the same as what Bloomsbury coaches work hard to ensure is true across their teams, and the organisation.

It mustn’t be understated the enormity of the evening, no thanks to the undeniable talent and calibre of who we were lucky to host. Somebody who at 21, has already made 77 first team senior appearances, across the Championship, Premier League, and Europa League as well as the domestic cup competitions. But most incredible, someone who when he was just 18 years of age, made his debut for Arsenal Football Club, scoring a match-winning brace to become the first player to score for the Gunners born after Arsene Wenger was hired on September 22nd, 1996. And guess what, his first goal took him just 15 seconds to score after coming off the bench in the second half. Somebody who will no doubt, considering the dedicated mindset we already know he possesses, reach the very top. All the more reason why we were so appreciative to be given a masterclass of the striker position by somebody who will be an excellent one in the future: “I think the most important thing for a striker is to try and bend the run a bit. If you’re a fast player, you can wait that second longer before you make a run to hold it. I would say even with your Dad in your garden, mark a line of where the offside line is and practice running and curving the run to get behind the ball. Just watch a lot of football and other players that make runs like that and see how they time it and try and replicate it in training and games”.

Superb in the future, no doubt, but already superb now. In October, Nketiah became England under-21s’ record scorer. His 14th goal for the Young Lions secured his place in the record books, surpassing Premier League all-time top scorer Alan Shearer’s long-standing record at England under-21 level. “It was a great feeling! At the time I was just happy to win the match and to score. When I got home was when I really started to realise how big an achievement it was. It was a nice feeling and just kept me hungry for more; allowed me to realise I’m doing well at the moment but now I can continue working hard and achieve more things if I put my mind to it”. An incredibly grounded individual and telling, that a feat this size doesn’t even phase him.

Already proven himself a fantastic striker, and his ability to play on either flank has contributed to that. “I have played always up front, sometimes I played off the left or on the right, along the front three. I think it is important, as much as you can, to learn and adapt to other roles. It will make you a more complete, better player. Once you start playing in different positions, you start to understand what you might need to do more of in your position to get free or to make a certain movement for your team”. Understanding of how and where to improve, and willingness to learn and develop, a key message for our Bloomsbury children.

Football is a tough sport, mentally and technically. But it’s beautiful too. So many of us are attached to this game. So many genders, ages and colours, all connected by a ball. The plethora of countries celebrating the game may mean it becomes difficult to communicate in a professional environment, “when they first come over, it can be difficult, but in our team, we have a lot of people that can speak multiple languages so they’re able to translate something across if you need to. A lot of the players have good basic level English. They learn and pick up the footballing terms and words easily, so it’s quite easy to start communicating with them once you have played a couple times with them.”

In actual fact, we’re all fluent in the same language: football, and that’s what makes it so special. “I think that’s what makes it so good and unique. People from all different races and nationalities can come together and play beautiful football together. It’s a wonderful sport, football allows everyone to reunite and get together, so I think that’s a plus. Being able to mix and learn different cultures of players from different countries, I’ve definitely enjoyed playing and mixing with players from different countries”. We agree with Nketiah, that the diversity of football is one of its best characteristics. Our homes being London means we’re based in one of the most diverse populations in the world and so we’re proud to be afforded the opportunity to provide this beautiful game to so many different types of people at Bloomsbury.

The amount of people across the world so heavily invested in the sport means that you can find yourself being friends with quite a few of them. In Nketiah’s case, he can sometimes find himself playing against his good friends, but by now we should know how somebody with the mentality of Nketiah deals with that… “It’s just the business. Once you step on the football pitch, you have to leave your friendships aside. It’s even the same in training, we’re competing against someone who can be my best friend, but I want to win. So, at that moment, I’m not thinking about our friendship, I’m just thinking about how I can win”.

After explaining how he was gut-wrenchingly robbed of the opportunity to play on the same pitch as Lionel Messi thanks to an injury the Argentine was carrying at the time, and also confessing his love for his former teammate, the mesmerising Santi Cazorla, Nkeitah rounded off the session by explaining to us exactly what separates the players who make it compared to those who do not. “The mental side of the game. Once you go up the levels, it really starts to show, I think the people who want it the most and the people who are willing to do that extra work and put themselves in uncomfortable states, day in and day out, those are the ones that really start to push through. I would say your mentality and drive definitely sets apart the best players. You can see it day in day out that they’re giving their all and they’re pushing to be the best player each day”. Perfectly circling back to the message which took centre stage during the evening.

What was a glorious evening was rounded off with an even better set of closing remarks: “enjoy playing football, enjoy having a ball at your feet and work hard. Anytime you can, whilst your young and whilst you’re enjoying it, do extra. Do extras in your garden, do extras wherever you can, and just be comfortable with the ball at your feet. Keep practising all the little things that your coaches tell you, and really take in advice and use the facilities you have. I can see that you guys have fantastic coaches in front of you. I’ll just say, use this and use the advice of everyone around you, because they know what they’re talking about. Even if it’s 1% that you can gain from each person, it will go a long way”.

In a year where not too many were cast, we’re grateful for Eddie Nketiah for allowing us the opportunity to put a smile on the faces of Bloomsbury Football, and we hope to welcome him again soon.