Summer of 2026: Arsenal, after twenty-two years, won the Premier League. Across in America, the Knicks basketball team ended a 50-year drought to win the NBA Championship, and now all eyes are on the World Cup. The coffee is brewed; Sweet Caroline has been loaded on the aux, the Tartan army are draping Boston statues with traffic cones and all of this in anticipation of who will bring the cup home. And yet, in athlete celebrations, parades and trophy-raising, a growing number of footballers, when asked their secret, point to Jesus. Celebratory poses that used to rile crowds in waves of cheering are now being supplemented with bowed knees, hands pointed to the sky, thanking God for their scores. (Crysencio Summerville, Netherlands) Most recently, Germany and Curaçao players, at the end of a game against one another, prayed in a circle on an open field, with Felix Nmecha (Felix Nmecha, Germany) sharing that: “After the game we are all Christians, we are all brothers.”
Is this good for football?
There could be an argument that open expressions of faith could spark political ideals and riots and whilst this has been topical discussion in modern day media. This take fails to recognise the historical significance that Christianity already played in football. In fact many leading football clubs were founded by churches, the likes of Everton, Manchester City and Celtic. Everton was founded to endorse an 19th century belief of ‘muscular Christianity’ which was the encouragement for believers to have a healthy mind and healthy body.
And yet widely, over time Football in England became culturally associated with working-class communities and industrial towns, where it grew into the nation’s dominant spectator sport. Unlike sports such as tennis, cricket or polo, it has often been framed in public and media narratives as a more “working-class” game, shaped by passion, accessibility and mass appeal. As a result, football has often suffered from media bias, no longer a call to spiritual wellness but being framed as undignified and associated with hooliganism, violence and drunkenness. In the early 2000s, there was also increasing discussion around footballers as role models from the FA, with concerns that entitled and aggressive behaviour on the pitch could influence fan conduct and wider crowd culture.
“Sport can act as a cathartic release for pent-up frustrations economic crises and the ever-evolving door of government”
Richard Giulianotti who has published many works on football, sports and social identity, argues that football fandom is deeply tied to identity. Supporters construct a sense of self through their relationship with teams and players, who become symbolic figures of collective emotion. In that sense, players are never just participants in a game; they become reference points for how emotion, meaning and belonging are expressed in the stands.
“It points to an identity that is not dependant on the final score”
Yet with the likes of Bukayo Saka (Bukayo Saka, Arsenal) now openly proclaiming Jesus, I wonder if it’s stirring a different kind of hope. Sport is a powerful tool for bringing people together, uniting them. Even the most unpatriotic, non-flag-bearing members of England put their differences aside to watch them play. The joy of the Tartan Army’s cheerful invasion of America has warmed hearts across the continent. Sport can act as a cathartic release for pent-up frustrations economic crises and the ever-evolving door of government. The rise in violence against women during major football tournaments is, however, a sobering reminder that sport alone cannot provide the peace and fulfilment many seek from it. Football can unite communities, but it cannot transform the human heart. When fans respond to victory or defeat with abuse and violence, it reveals a need for deeper virtues such as self-control, humility and compassion which can only be done in relationship with Jesus. What if this is why footballers professing their Christian faith openly is so striking?
When players who are more skilled than most, whose legs are insured for millions and who are known for winning, bow down and pray, it humanises them. It takes them from the pedestal a stadium creates and lets us, the watchers, into their world. It shows that they are, in fact, human and in need of a supernatural source of strength. It points to an identity that is not dependant on the final score. When they win and do not usurp the glory for their hard work alone or their manager’s tactics, but give ‘all glory to God’, as Eze (Eberechi Eze, Arsenal) would say, it reminds viewers that there is more to the ninety minutes, that they do this for something bigger than themselves. Perhaps it reminds the exhausted pub owner that life is bigger than their shift too. It tells the frustrated jobseeker looking for escapism that, if someone who is perceived to ‘have it all’ needs God, maybe they do as well.
“Today, an emerging generation of footballers are putting God at the forefront and the world is watching.”
Accounts like ‘Ballers in God’, where faith meets football, are faithful documenters of the social media movement of footballers following Jesus, encouraging an emerging generation that it is not faith or football, career or God, but both. In the early 2000s, you may have seen an odd cross necklace or a paparazzi shot of your favourite player attending a church service. Today, an emerging generation of footballers are putting God at the forefront and the world is watching. And that is powerful. Stadiums filled with thousands are witnessing what it looks like to have faith in action and hope in something greater than themselves.
When I see a player post interview kneeling, praying and thanking God, it reminds me to thank him to, to remember to celebrate God too! When I see a player boldly share their faith in a stadium of thousands or using a journalist’s mic it reminds me that I can speak about Jesus too. Even in spaces that seem like there would be no space for it. They remind me to be brave. Footballers like us are not perfect, but if in their imperfections and high scrutiny they are professing their love for Jesus what excuse do I have. And maybe they are the new evangelists, but we are too, maybe the next player you see profess Jesus could be a topic at work the next day, maybe the players are the start of a conversation about the gospel and not the end.
So, as we kick back, relax and enjoy the World Cup ride. And whether we are cheering for England, or donning your Blue and White shirt for Scotland, we can all agree were going to need lots of Jesus to get us through this tournament!
References
Richard Giulianotti Football: A Sociology of the Global Game (1999), Sport: A Critical Sociology
Ballers in God (2026) Instagram account. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/ballersingod/