Footballers are great role models… but they need to be able to go partying, like I did, says Jack Wilshere
HAVING been hailed as the new Paul Gascoigne after making his senior England debut at 18, Jack Wilshere got a reputation for a party lifestyle.
The former Arsenal midfielder’s career, including a stunning double strike during the Three Lions’ European Championship qualifying match against Slovenia in 2015, was then hampered by a catalogue of injuries.
But now aged 33 and a coach — currently with Championship side Norwich City, and previously Arsenal under-18s — he understands the pressures on young football stars.
Like former Three Lions manager Sir Gareth Southgate, he knows how much these kids need role models.
The dad of four will run next month’s London Marathon in aid of the British Heart Foundation and is backing a campaign inspiring the nation to learn lifesaving cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.
While at Arsenal, Jack helped coach now 18-year-old wonderkids Myles Lewis-Skelly — who last week scored on his full England debut in our World Cup qualifier win against Albania — and Ethan Nwaneri, now with the Three Lions under-21s.
But he also believes players need to be allowed to let their hair down when not on club time.
He made headlines in 2010 when he was arrested 18 days after making his full England debut in a friendly against Hungary at Wembley, coming on as a late substitute for Steven Gerrard.
He was given a police caution following the late-night brawl — where it turned out he had played peacemaker.
But Jack tells The Sun: “I always thought I was sensible enough to know the right times to go out and when not to — and it’s important that the players have some downtime.
“Of course, the world has changed a little bit and there’s so many things young people, young players can do, but downtime is important, as are the people around you.”
After England crashed out of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil in the group stage, Jack was pictured with a cigarette as he partied in a Las Vegas pool with goalkeeper Joe Hart.
But that was in downtime between duties with England and Arsenal.
Plenty of footballers, such as England’s Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish, have been haunted by shots of them partying.
But Jack says: “I don’t ever really look back and think, ‘I should not have done that’.”
During his career he won FA Cups with Arsenal in 2014 and 2015, 34 England caps including six man-of-the-match awards, and scored two Premier League goals of the season.
After ten years at Arsenal, until 2018, he was at West Ham for two years before spells at Bournemouth and Danish side Aarhus. But injuries — particularly ankle but also knee and back — forced him to retire in 2022 aged 30.
Goals of the season
He then became head coach of Arsenal under-18s before leaving last October to become a first-team coach at Norwich.
He has taken advice from former England pals Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, who all moved into football management.
Jack says of coaching: “It’s a comp-letely different skill set. You have to learn how to lead people.
“You have to learn how to inspire people and keep them inspired and convince them to buy into something.”
Gareth Southgate spoke last week about how such inspiration needs to be passed on to young men, throughout society, to stop them falling under the spell of toxic online influencers such as misogynist Andrew Tate.
Jack has son Archie, 13, and 11-year-old daughter Delilah by former girlfriend Lauren Neal, as well as daughter Siena, seven, and six-year-old son Jack by his now wife Andriani Michael.
He says: “We have to be careful about the messages we expose them to, which I try to do, and try and limit their access to social media, and try to give them opportunities to have role models.
“Archie’s 13. As he gets older, things might change. But at the moment his role models are footballers, and he wants to be a footballer, and he’s driven to do that.”
Jack — who has been married to Andriani, daughter of his barber, for almost eight years — believes that footballers are great role models for young men.
His sons now worship the latest England sensations.
He says: “I think about my son, and another son who’s five — they have role models, they love Jude Bellingham, they love Bukayo Saka.
“When I grew up, I had David Beckham, I had Joe Cole, I had Frank Lampard.”
Meanwhile, football is playing a role in saving lives by asking fans to learn CPR — the emergency procedure of chest presses and rescue breaths to restore breathing and circulation after the heart stops.
Sky Bet and the English Football League’s Every Minute Matters cam-paign aim to get 270,000 football fans to learn this by next month — and 235,000 already have. The British Heart Foundation has its own 15-minute online course, RevivR.
Jack learned CPR because his eldest child Archie has epilepsy, which causes seizures.
Jack reveals: “The first time it happens you don’t know what’s going on, what it is. It was quite scary. So we wanted to learn CPR as a family.”
I don’t ever really look back and think, ‘I should not have done that’.
Jack Grealish
British Heart Foundation ambass-ador Jack is now backing the Sky Bet EFL Every Minute Matters Relay — a 4,000km “jaunt” across the country starting today in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and Plymouth, and ending four weeks later in London on Easter Monday.
Fans of all 72 clubs in the English Football League will run, walk and cycle legs of various lengths.
Fan favourites “Big Sam” Allardyce, Troy Deeney and Dion Dublin are also taking part.
Jack, though, is also training for the London Marathon on April 27 — and the hard yards have been more difficult than he reckoned. He admits: “It’s tough. I never thought that I’d have to actually run that far.”
Waiting for him at the finishing line will be daughter Siena, whose potentially fatal heart condition insp-ired Jack to help the British Heart Foundation.
In February last year, Siena under-went an operation to fix a hole in her heart. Jack was so stressed by the fear of losing her that he lost almost a stone in weight.
He adds: “People said to me, ‘Why are you doing the marathon? You’re crazy’. And, yes, it will be hard, it will be tough, there will be moments where I probably will doubt if I’ll get across the finish line.
“But I will get across the finish line and Siena will be there waiting for me. That’s thanks to the British Heart Foundation, thanks to the doctors, and that’s something I’ll always be in debt for, grateful for.”
Siena is now fit and well, getting back to a normal life, although Jack says: “We’re a little bit more careful with her, and probably give her a little bit more TLC than the others.”
Daughter’s heart op
The marathon will see him pitted against former England teammate John Terry, and Jack says with a laugh: “If I was you, I’d put your money on him.”
Chelsea centre-half John was the Three Lions captain when Jack broke into the side as a teenager. The hardman skipper was an inspirational leader who helped guide the young player on and off the pitch.
Jack says: “It was something I’d never experienced before. He talked through the whole game — my positioning, how to do this, how to do that. He taught me a lot and showed me what a real leader was.”
Jack now hopes to become a manager but is happy to take his time and learn. The success of Southgate taking England to two European Championship finals in a row, in 2021 and 2024, inspires him — like other English managers, such as Newcastle United’s Eddie Howe and Graham Potter at West Ham.
But he has no beef with the Football Association having given the England manager’s job to German Thomas Tuchel, ex-boss of Chelsea.
Jack says: “I love it, it’s a big step from the FA. Gareth’s done a fant-astic job, and as a young English coach to have someone like Gareth at the top of the tree gave us belief.
“But with the players we’ve got now, it’s so important we maximise that, and we’ve got the best guy to do that. Thomas is a proven winner.”
- Sky Bet and the EFL have joined forces in support of the British Heart Foundation to host the Sky Bet EFL Every Minute Matters Relay. To learn CPR in just 15 minutes with the BHF’s free, online tool, search ‘RevivR’.