Introduction: About Ben Foster
Ben Foster is a professional goalkeeper who has played for numerous clubs including Stoke, Birmingham, Manchester United , West Brom and Watford (transfermarkt, 2023). In September 2022, Ben Foster announced his retirement from football, however in March 2023, he signed for national league side Wrexham, where he had a loan spell back in 2005 (BBC Sport, 2023). The goalkeeper then went on to help Wrexham win the national league title, securing promotion back to the football league for the first time after a fifteen year absence (Badshah, 2023).
Ben Foster’s social media has grown over the last few years. His twitter following currently stands at 340k, whilst his current Instagram following stands at an even bigger 593k. His largest social media following, however, is on YouTube. His channel, started during the Covid19 lockdown has amassed a total of 1.42 million subscribers.
Ben Foster began his YouTube channel back in 2020, which was named “The Cycling GK”, and the majority of the content that he was posting at that time was vlogs which included him going on bike rides with friends and the very popular football vlogs. (Sky Sports Premier League, 2021). Many of his viewers loved the fact that Ben Foster’s videos showed an insight to a footballers daily routine and got to witness behind the scenes content on matchdays, which was particularly important to those who missed the joys of going to the football themselves every week whilst the world was in lockdown. His matchday videos would usually feature a GoPro which he placed in the back of the net, which showed his perspective of the matches that he was playing in, and his audience would be able to hear how he communicates with his teammates and players reactions to match events in and around the penalty area.
One of the more significant outcomes from the pandemic when it came to football was the increased digitalisation of the sport (Radmann and Karlen, 2022), which has allowed football fans to remain somewhat in touch with their clubs and the sport in general, and Ben Foster’s channel is a prime example of this digitalisation.
Whilst it is evident that Ben Foster’s social media activity has been able to bring fans closer to the game not just during the pandemic, but even since the pandemic, I will be exploring in even further detail at how this happens. His viewers engagement with his Social Media content will also be taken into consideration, as this will enable me to learn how Foster’s content has affected his audiences with his posts.
References
Badshah, N. (2023) Wrexham AFC and Hollywood owners celebrate promotion with bus parade. The Guardian. [Online] [Accessed on 4th May 2023] https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/02/wrexham-afcs-hollywood-owners-celebrate-promotion-to-the-english-football-league
BBC Sport. (2023) Ben Foster: Ex-England and Manchester United keeper signs for Wrexham. [Online] [Accessed on 4th May 2023] https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65051171
Radmann, A. and Karlen, S. (2022) ‘Spectators longing for live action: a study of the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on (football) supporters in Sweden.’ Sport In Society, 25(7) pp. 1–16.
Sky Sports Premier League. (2021) “I absolutely love it” Why Ben Foster started YouTube — Saturday Social ft Chunkz & Ben Foster. [Online video] [Accessed on 4th May 2023] https://youtu.be/bVlx9r50AkE
Transfermarkt. (2023) Ben Foster. [Online] [Accessed on 4th May 2023] https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/ben-foster/profil/spieler/13572
Winter, L. (2023) Ben Foster ate three fans’ kebab, chips and pizza as Wrexham stars partied on bar crawl. Express. [Online] [Accessed on 4th May 2023] https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1764463/Ben-Foster-Wrexham-promotion-celebrations