The recent past has seen many footballers turn into media personalities after their playing careers, starting their channels or podcasts, or giving out frequent appearances on pre-existing ones. However, perhaps the most unique one among these may be the case of Ben Foster, the footballer known by his YouTube channel’s name, The Cycling GK.

Ben Foster, Football and YouTube

Unlike many of his fellow professionals, Ben Foster’s beginnings in the sport were not through any club’s academies. He was playing for the semi-professional side Racing Club Warwick when he was scouted by Stoke City. It was here that Ben Foster had a loan spell at Wrexham, which would later lead to his return to the club. At Stoke, he was noticed by the legendary manager Alex Ferguson, and thus began Ben Foster’s saga at Manchester United. 

Ben Foster, from Man Utd, began his decades-long career in the top flight of English football, playing for clubs such as Watford, Birmingham, and West Bromwich Albion. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the footballer turned to social media to start a career as a media personality alongside his day job as a footballer. Ben Foster’s YouTube channel, called the Cycling GK, consisted of GoPro footage from behind his goal during Watford’s matches, which led to the channel gaining rapid popularity. At one point in time, the subscribers of Ben Foster's YouTube channel were even more than the subscribers of the club he was playing for. The success of his YouTube channel also led to Ben Foster starting his podcast, the Forzcast.

Ben Foster, Wrexham, and That Penalty Save

In September 2022, Foster announced his retirement from professional football, even turning down a contract offer from Newcastle United. Destiny, however, had other plans for the footballer. Ben Foster, whose net worth is $22 million, decided to once again make a comeback to football in March 2023 because of his love for the game. After their first-choice goalkeeper got injured, Ben Foster joined Wrexham, who were playing in the National League, in their attempt to come back to the professional tiers of English football. As part of the deal, Wrexham offered a salary to Ben Foster worth "peanuts," in the words of the player himself. 

Foster’s return to the club brought success to both the player and the club in different forms. While the club won promotion to League Two, thanks to Ben Foster’s penalty save in the crucial match against Notts County, Foster’s YouTube channel Cycling GK also gained further traction, as unlike at Watford, where he was eventually prohibited from doing so, Ben Foster could freely place his GoPro behind his net during the matches. The documentary on Wrexham, Welcome to Wrexham, also brought the former Premier League star back into the spotlight of the media.

The New Ben Foster

The fairytale story with Wrexham also helped leverage his status as a media personality in the sport of football. After Ben Foster once again announced his retirement in a tweet in 2023, when a series of poor performances in League Two led him to realise that he could no longer play football at a professional level, he started to focus extensively on his media career. Since then, Ben Foster has made multiple appearances on many podcasts, and many sports stars have also been featured in his podcast. Thus, while we may never be able to see Ben Foster the footballer again, we are sure to see much more of Ben Foster the YouTuber and Ben Foster the podcaster.