The Bold Tackle

Media coverage is an essential part of any sport these days. It increases visibility and promotion; it allows fans to connect with their club and players and it gives an insight into what happens in the day-to-day life at the training ground. Often, what fans really want to see is content from behind the scenes and entertaining coverage around the players and team especially off the pitch. But where do you draw the line? When does it become too personal and maybe “unprofessional”? How do you give the fans the content they want whilst respecting the player’s personal lives?

Not long ago, we released an episode on our views on players’ agents within the game. Through our discussions it became very clear that we generally were missing a wholistic approach towards the player’s care and wanted to find out more about this business through some first-hand insights. Therefore, for this episode, we invited Christian Leonhardt to join us. Christian is a former sports agent that consciously decided to leave the business of intermediary behind and has now founded his own company, RuhmReich, which is an independent multi–family office in Germany. Here, Christian believes, they finally offer their athletes the overall support that is needed for them to fully focus on their jobs on the pitch, court or in the arena. A family-like relationship based on trust and transparency has been key in RuhmReich’s success. But what were the motivators in Christian’s decision to leave the sports agency world? What makes him and RuhmReich different and why does he believe honesty and tough conversations are absolutely crucial in not only working together but for their athletes’ hopefully successful careers.

It’s fair to say that Leicester’s Women have had an impressive start to the 2023/24 season. Seven points from three games and second in the league on goal difference. Historically and statistically this certainly is the best start to a season that LCFC Women have had in the WSL. But what is their secret to success? What is the team doing differently this season to lead to the performances we’ve seen and how are they looking to continue this form? In this episode we will be discussing LCFC Women’s great start to their league campaign and will be highlighting the performances in each of the three opening games. Further, we will be getting Sophie’s thoughts on crucial factors behind the current success and will be highlighting how the team is focused to stay on top of their game.

“What do I tell my child when it hasn’t made the team?” “How do I rebuild my child’s knocked confidence?” and “How do I manage my own frustrations and feelings when I see my child struggling?” Parents play an incredibly crucial part in their children’s development and are often the ones their son and daughters look to for support, encouragement and guidance. However, sometimes even parents don’t have all the answers and look for advice how to handle certain situations and their emotions throughout their children’s development and career. So, for this episode, we will be bringing our dad, Neil, on the podcast to discuss how he himself perceived Sophie’s career and development throughout the years. We will be highlighting Neil’s involvement during her playing career and how he handled his own emotions during the highs and lows of being a parent of a professional footballer. Lastly, we will be looking at the influence dad had in Sophie’s wholehearted dedication to football and will be sharing his biggest advice for a parent of a child that loves the game as much as Sophie does.

“She doesn’t even look like an athlete”. “There’s nothing to her. How can she even tackle anyone?” “She must have been hitting the gym lately”. These are the comments we’ve all heard at some point - whether directed at us directly or our teammates. Unfortunately, we have developed an ideology of what a female footballer should look like. Skinny and attractive but not too skinny. Strong and athletic but not too bulky. Who cares! What should really matter is what you perform like on the pitch. How many runs in behind you can make. How many 1-vs-1 duels you win and how many headers you score based on your aerial dominance. In this episode we will be discussing the topic of body composition in sport. We will be looking at how body composition can be used to support performance improvements and how the lack of understanding and knowledge in this area can lead to a downward spiral of the everlasting desire to be skinny and to fit the “golden standard”.

Not too long ago, we found ourselves having a good old “dinner time” conversation during a car ride home from a family gathering. As this discussion caused not only a hell of a lot of laughter in us both, but more importantly as we realised how incredibly much we learned about one another during this conversation, we decided to share our thoughts and outcomes with you all. What is fear and where do fears come from? What are our personal fears in life and what do we do to tackle these? In this episode, we will be sharing our biggest and most bizarre fears growing up and will be discussing how present fears have influenced the way we both live our lives today. Wholeheartedly committed and full of gratitude.

Every person will at some point have to deal with disappointment and rejection. Athletes will have to add injuries to the list. When you’re injured you unfortunately automatically drop in terms of priority for selection and performance can for a long time be impacted by injuries. Therefore, rejection is definitely one of the biggest silent struggles the athletes deal with. But what if you’re fully fit? How do you deal with it then? And how does this affect you as an athlete, but also as a person outside of the sport? In this episode we will be discussing Sophie’s experience with rejection, how this affected her on and off the pitch and how honest self-reflection has got her into the strong mental state she is in today. We will be highlighting how Sophie took it upon herself to find help to get back the “old Soph”, what role her family played in all this and we will be sharing her biggest life lessons she learnt from fighting for validation.

As the women’s summer transfer window in the UK is closing today, it’s the perfect opportunity to take a closer look at the role of mediators in football. Agents - the players’ apparent right hand and who every now and then make an appearance in the headlines after sorting a record-breaking deal or a trailblazing move to a new club. But what really is the standing of football agents in the game? And should every player have an agent? In this episode, we will be discussing agencies within the world of women’s football. We will be highlighting the demands the athletes have of football agents and will be taking a closer look at the currently existing payment structure. Lastly, we will be addressing the importance of human connection and trust when working with agents and discuss why Sophie has made the decision to represent herself again.

While trying to make history and constantly improving the game of women's football, you are not allowed to forget that behind each great athlete there is a person, a mother, a father, a sibling or a child. It is so important, to always see the person beheind the professional, so therefore, in this episode, we will be looking at Sophie’s life off the pitch and what she gets up to outside of football. We will be discussing the meaning behind “football friends” and how Sophie has created a life for herself away from the pitch. Lastly, we will be taking a closer look at what Sophie’s plans are for after her playing career and how she uses football to achieve her ultimate goal in life.

For years we have been hearing the shout for equal pay. Across the globe women are fighting for equality in all areas of life. But is equal pay really what we should be asking for in football? And how does this align with the principles of business and finance. In this episode we'll really be getting into the nitty-gritty stuff around finances in football when discussing the difficulty of demanding equal pay.