A couple of months ago, there was a big debate amongst fans after Arsenal’s new 50m defender Ben White admitted that he has never really enjoyed watching football, and would much rather be playing.
The difference with Rob Holding though, is that he does enjoy watching a few other sports, and with his girlfriend being American, he particularly enjoys the NFL.
Holding has now been at Arsenal for six years since arriving from Bolton, but he certainly doesn’t get to play as much as new arrival White, but in an interview with Arsenal.com, he explained what he did during the last international break. “I went to watch England v Australia in the rugby at Twickenham on the Saturday,”
“Then on the Sunday I spent my time flicking between the Formula One, the T20 cricket final, and then the NFL in the evening. So that was my whole day!
“That’s a regular weekend for me to be honest, keeping up with the sport. Every Sunday between 6pm and midnight I watch the NFL coverage. American Football is probably the main sport I follow now. I watch a lot of it, and know quite a lot about it now in terms of players at each team. I watch basketball too, but over the past few years NFL has taken over for me.
“I’ve watched it for about eight or nine years, I started to get into it at high school and then watched it more as it was on TV more on Sundays. I really love it now.
“I’m a 49ers fan because that’s where my girlfriend is from – it’s the nearest team to her – so I thought that made sense. I went to the stadium and spent a bit of time in San Francisco while visiting her, so I have grown an affiliation with them. I like their kit as well, the red, white and gold – lovely combination.”
So, we often hear of some footballers spending all their spare time watch other teams and other League, and learning from different tactics and managers.
Do you think it is weird that a professional player never watches any football at all?
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