Football for Breakfast

Anthony Parker's first ever football match was a Matt Busby testimonial. George Best was on the pitch. They moved the goalposts to the 18-yard line so he could play. He had bags and bags of skill. Anthony was five or six years old. He never forgot it. In episode eleven of Football for Breakfast, Jim Johnson sits down with Anthony in the greasy spoon cafe to talk about Manchester United, the we...

Harry Davies's dad sang him "You'll Never Walk Alone" as a lullaby. Every single night. Instead of anything else. Harry is 21. He found his dad's Istanbul 2005 tracksuit top in a wardrobe one day and quietly claimed it. He wasn't even there in 2005 - he was one year old. But he wears it now to every big game, including the 4-3 win over Spurs when Jota scored the 96th minu...

Abdul Malik-Ahad arrived in England on Christmas Day 1979. He was seven years old. He hid under his auntie's poncho at Heathrow because he had never felt cold like it. A few years later, aged ten, he found himself surrounded by football fans in Oldham on a Saturday afternoon before a match. A skinhead put a beer can on his head and smashed it. That was the backdrop to football for the British...

You're right - Spotify is just the prose narrative, no chapters or emoji section headers. That's the YouTube format. Here's the Spotify version in the normal style: Jane Hoskisson grew up going to Goodison Park with her dad in the early 80s, right at the start of the Howard Kendall years. She was a little girl in a huge crowd, too small to see over the bar, carried along by the noise o...

Jamie Carragher grew up in Bootle watching his dad's Sunday League team on a Sunday morning. His earliest football memory is Everton winning the FA Cup in 1984. His dad is an Evertonian. He still gets three football magazines delivered every month. He never stopped being a fan. Whatever else he became. In episode seven of Football for Breakfast, Jim Johnson sits down with Jamie in the greasy spoon...

Jez Clein played football from 14 to 44. Then a prolapsed disc ended it - not on the pitch, but batting at the crease in a cricket match. A friend suggested he take up refereeing. He does ten to fifteen matches a week now. He's never been more certain of anything. In episode six of Football for Breakfast, Jim Johnson sits down with Jez to talk about Everton, refereeing and what the game does t...

Danny Schweiger's dad calls him the failed footballer. His mate Ashley Ward - who used to be in Danny's house every other day - made it as a professional. Danny didn't. Or so the story goes. At 18, Danny went to Zimbabwe. He ended up in a factory with 2,000 people, got a trial at Darren Tornadoes of the Zimbabwean Super League - the same league as Bruce Grobbelaar and Peter Ndlovu - si...

Syed Rashid brought an Arsenal shirt to the table. The O2 home kit from the 2003-04 Invincibles season - the last time Arsenal were champions of England. He hasn't worn it since 15th May 2004. That conversation was filmed before Arsenal reached the Champions League final and went top of the Premier League with two games to play. Syed is Vice President of Worldwide Market Access and Government...

Graeme Kelly turned down his dream car in January 2020. Two months later, Covid hit. Because he hadn't taken the dividend, he was able to pay every single member of his staff their full wage for the entire duration of the pandemic. Nobody left the business. Nobody was let down. He didn't tell anyone at the time. He just did it because it was the right thing to do. In episode three of Footb...

Callum Webb grew up on a council estate in Liverpool, spent his first ten years working on a building site and at 25 had £3,000 in a drawer. He spent every penny of it on a personal training course. Today he co-founded POW8R - the number one live stream and on-demand fitness app, featured in Vogue and GQ, with members across the globe. In episode two of Football for Breakfast, Jim Johnson sits dow...

Neil Atkinson has built one of the most distinctive football media brands on the planet. As host and managing director of The Anfield Wrap, he has taken the voice of the match-going Liverpool supporter to every corner of the globe. When Gary Neville tells you that you're a better pundit than him, you know you're doing something right. In the first ever episode of Football for Breakfast, Jim Johnso...