How small-sided football helped Iwobi fall back in love with football

Photo credit: The Sun

Nigerian international and Premier League star, Alex Iwobi has told of how playing 7-a-side football helped him fall back in love with the game of football at a time when he was struggling at his club, Everton.

The Daily Star reported about how Iwobi revealed on BBC's Kammy & Ben's Proper Football Podcast that he would wear a snood to cover his hair and hide his identity to play 7-a-side football with friends. This was during a tough spell when he was not playing a lot of games at Everton. However, he has since become one of the key players of the club and he has credited playing football with friends for helping him find his feet again and fall back in love with the game.

Iwobi added that he avoided getting into 50/50s or physical contact to prevent against injury. Even when his identity was eventually discovered, other players did well to protect him by avoiding unnecessary physicality, with comments like "Don't really get too tight to him. He has training, you know, he has a match coming up soon."

We have previously discussed the advantages of playing small-sided football and this is another interesting point.