Football Daily - Jarrod Bowen - The Football Interview

Episode Date: August 30, 2025

West Ham and England forward Jarrod Bowen in conversation with Kelly Somers. Jarrod talks about his upbringing, the impact of his family, his career so far and starting a family with Dani Dyer. From starting in non-league with Hereford United and an early Hull City move to winning the Europa Conference League with West Ham and representing England.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. To embrace the impossible requires a vehicle that pushes what's possible. Defender 110 boasts a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms, a weighting depth of 900mm and a roof load up to 300 kilograms. Learn more at Landrover.ca. Ever feel like car shopping is designed to make your second guess yourself? Is this a good price? Am I making the right choice? With car gurus, you don't have to wonder. They have hundreds of thousands of cars from top-rated dealers and advanced search tools, deal ratings and price history.

So you know a great deal when you see one. That's C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S dot CA, car gurus.cairous.com. The Football Interview on the Football Daily Podcast and BBC Eye Player. Firstly, Darids, we're obviously sitting here because you're a footballer. That's why everyone knows you. So let's start with what does football mean to you. Everything. You know, it's something that I'm in a privileged position that I get to do day in, day out. And it's probably all that I've known from such a young age. So football to me, yeah, it's obviously everything.

You mentioned there it's all you've known since a young age. What's your earliest memory of playing? Probably the first club that I played for, a team called Lempster Miners. The venue, the big playing fields, is still there now. Went home in the summer was still there. So, yeah, that would be my first kind of memory, and it's kind of carried on as well. I've had brothers and sisters that have played there as well and friends that have been there and to see it still going as well when I go home, it's so nice to go back and just remember when I was that age

and just playing on the field and we're not a carer in the world and just the biggest smile on my face so yeah I'd say that would probably be my first kind of memory. Talk to me about, you say Lempster Miners, it's cool, talks to me about what that was like as a team, how old you were when you joined?

I think I must have started when I was about four or something, something really young, but I played there up in 15, something like that. You know, it's quite a small area where, you know, I've grown up. So all our friends at school were basically playing in the same team. And we just grew up together playing. My dad was the manager for a lot of years as well.

So that was always fun. And I started at such a young age, I had Hereford as well, which was more like a development school, so to speak. But, you know, we had the same players from my hometown team going to Hereford as well. Because, you know, like I said, it's not the biggest area in terms of encatchment of players coming in from all over the place. for the place so we pretty much had the same team for you know our local local team and then one that was about 20 minutes away you mentioned there that you went on to play for hereford

can you remember making that move or can you remember how you how you got to hereford like i said i was playing for lempton training like a couple of times a week um it was called like a development school or soccer foundation or something like that so at the grassroots level um and then at the time i think hereford were you know when i was always growing up there was always in the football league always in the conference so there was always like a system kind of there a team and then I think when I left school because I only done my first year so when I left school is when I got my first youth team contract which to me was you know incredible you know growing up watching my local team week in week out

and then to have the opportunity like in the youth team playing and then you know to play for them as well was incredible I was going to say given that it sounds like such a local community and quite tight-knit when you actually were able to play for Hereford you must have felt like incredible it must have It must have been like a dream at that point. Yeah, because there was me and someone else who played for the Lempster Miners team that went on to play for Hereford as well.

I think there was about four of us in the squad from the youth team, gone up into the first team. All my friends when I scored my first goal at Hereford were all behind the goal. I still got pictures and videos that we always send each other that we see and yeah, that moment was just for me incredible at the time of being such, I think I was 16, 17 playing

and then to score at the stadium that I've been to week in week out, the end that we used to sit behind the goal. And then my friends being there as well, so it was incredible. Who would you say has had the biggest impact on your career? Is there a coach or a person? Obviously, I always think, I mean, not one person, my mum and dad, from such a young age, taking me to different places all around the country,

still work all week. And then for me to come home from school and then they're driving me here, there and everywhere for different tournaments. And, you know, gave me the opportunity. Because like I said earlier, I just loved playing football, put a smile on my face. for them to take time out of their days, to take me there and support me there and, you know, help me get to where I am now. I think it's such a great feeling when, you know, my mum was asking me, people from the school that I went to,

are, can you just sign a shirt for someone? You know, it's, for her, I know, I know she means the word to her as well, because she just sees me as, you know, still a little boy, but, you know, it's kind of changed in that way as well. So I think, yeah, I think another one in terms of footballing would probably be my youth team coach at Hereford. Like I said, there was a couple of things that went in my way in terms of me making my Davey for Hereford. My youth team coach went to the first team manager because I don't think they could afford a new manager. So, you know, little things like that helped me make a path into the first team. He kind of, like I said, he took three or four of us from the youth team that he managed into the first team. So, you know, and I think without doing that, I wouldn't be sat here today because I wouldn't have had that opportunity to play for Hereford, which helped me move to hole, which then, you know, now I'm here.

So sometimes in football, you know, you're on this. journey where you're just, you're so focused on what you do and trying to be the best that when you look back at it sometimes, it's crazy. How little things, a lot of luck, I think, for things to go in your way and help you with that journey, I think. You've almost stolen my next question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Has there been a turning point? Because it's been not a straightforward linear journey. Your journey is very different to most footballers, from Hereford, Hull, then to the Premier League winning a European trophy and with England. Is there one moment that you could pinpoint that you think actually that's where you're

it all changed? Probably when I got rejected from Cardiff, you know, before I went to Hereford, yeah, because I think at that moment, the Hereford youth team, like I said, there was not much money, so it was kind of, it folded almost, the youth team got kind of put to the side and then it came back, so that luck again. So I went on trial to Cardiff for about six weeks, I think, and you know, at the time I thought, right, my local team, Hereford's not got anything for me to have that path. I've gone to Cardiff, thought I've done really well for six weeks, and they've said no as well. So I was kind of like, well, this is it now then.

There's not going to be. But then I think that rejection from Cardiff and then, you know, Hereford's then starting back up. But then it just made me appreciate it so much more. And I think in the end, I was just enjoying playing football because I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know if it was just going to end. You know, football, many things can happen

that get thrown in your face. But I think for me, I was just so appreciative of being able to play football. And I loved playing football. And, you know, I was playing at Hereford and I thought, my career can't get much better than this. I was happy with that. And then, you know, a few things happen. Obviously, it's down to me then to put the work in.

And I moved to Hull at 17, which was a big lifestyle difference. You know, three and a half hours away from home at 17 was absolutely horrendous. But, you know, I think those things have all helped me kind of off the pitch. And then it helps you on the pitch as well because you know what you've got to do on the pitch. But I think if you can, you know, mature as a person off the pitch, I think it helps you. So, yeah, a few things that happen. say that card of rejection that was, you know, I thought, well, this is the end, so let me just be appreciative of playing when I can.

If you thought three and a half hours from home, what are you now seven hours? It's probably the same, to be honest, because it's three and a half round trip. So three and a half there, three and a half back. So you're used to it now, that's fine. Yeah, so I'm used to just not going home and, you know, family try and travel down as much as they can. But, yeah, I've always been a long way away from home. But, of course, I'd love to be home. But I think I genuinely do think, you know, at the time, I was fuming my dad,

because we had West Brom, Wolves and Hull. West Brom and Wolves, obviously, it was an hour from where I live. So I was like, I want to go there because I'll be home all the time. And it was only when my mum and dad spoke to me and said, I think it was so much better for you to move a long way away from home, kind of almost not being home all the time. Like I said, maturing is a person. So, yeah, I think I'm just used to not be in 30 minutes from home anymore.

And mum and dad always my best. Is that fruit? Well, that's what they say, yeah. You've played in some huge matches already in your career. Which match, if you could relive one, would you play again? I think one that probably sticks with me the most, it was probably the final that we had. The celebrations, the day. The Europa Conference, yeah.

So the day, the build-up, never been involved in any sort of final before. Coming out, getting to the stadium a couple of hours before, going out to the look at the pitch like you do, and it was just packed. you know usually it takes a good hour for people to get into the stadium and but you know they lived up the whole moment and you know obviously it went how it did but I just think that that whole build up and that feeling of the final whistle going and you're on the pitch and you know there's a there's a replay on YouTube that me and my and my dad watched the other day the whole game and I think after the game ended I think the camera went to me and I was just like had the biggest smile on my face I just dropped to my knees and it was just like the feeling of that and it was just like the feeling of that. because like I said first final winning a European trophy

obviously I've got different debuts and first England goal and stuff but I think for the what it meant for us as a group what it meant for the fans as well I think that was such a great day did you just say you and your dad were watching the whole game back recently yeah that shows of itself how much it means yeah yeah he always watches it when he's into like rowing and canoeing so he's got a rowing

and it'll just send me a picture if I had my phone I haven't got my phone but he sends me a picture of just like an hour and 29 like it's just the whole game and then I was like how did like because I've never watched it before until I watched it with him like the whole whole game obviously you watch the highlights I watch the goal and stuff because you know that's a great moment but to actually sit down and watch the whole game you knew how it was gonna go but I was still watching it a little bit nervous I'm thinking I

know how the game goes why am I so nervous but to sit down and watch watch the whole game because I think I can't remember like can't really remember the game fully so like to watch it when you know it's been two years now so to watch from like two years on in a different way yeah it was a weird feeling but it was such like so i loved watching it let's talk a bit more about jarra bowing the person then and you've mentioned your dad multiple times already so let's start there and family and what it was like in the boeing household growing up take me into like a typical day probably the similar upbringing to most people have i've got a brother and a sister younger brother and sister so i was the eldest child

so you know it was always they always said i was the favorite child because i was the firstborn that's still a thing but yeah just I love playing football I love spending time with my mum and dad so probably pretty similar to you know a normal kind of kind of upbringing you know it was really fortunate that nothing bad kind of happened and I had quite a quite an easy upbringing and yeah like I said I lived in a small community you know my family still live there now yeah I think growing up for me it was just quite playing sailing like said brother and sister firstborn child I always like I said all always get the, you're the favourite child.

But yeah, pretty, a very sporty family. My dad played rugby and football as well. Mum worked at the school that we grew up. She still works there. And, you know, that was kind of our life, really. You must be the poster boy. If your mum's at the school, you must be like a little hero. Yeah, well, like I said, my mum, she's always,

when she comes down, she comes down, you know, once a month or something, when she comes down, it's like, you know, she brings this whole box of things. She goes, oh, someone just asked me if, and she's the nicest woman in the worst, so she will never say no to anyone. So she comes down with this box of stuff and I'll sign it for everyone.

It might be for a raffle or something like that. But, you know, I think it makes me look at it as well. You know, I've grown up in that area, still know pretty much everyone in that area, been to that school. So for them to, you know, want my things as well, I think it means a lot to me for people to, you know, put me on the walls and, you know,

they want my signature and stuff. And, yeah. You've got incredible perspective, it feels like from your family, really. Like some footballers maybe don't have what you've got. it feels like you're quite fortunate to have that, like, reminders of just how fortunate you are, I guess. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, I think I've always been quite humble with it and always kind of given back to what I know, you know, the football club, if I can help in any way with equipment.

You know, I've done that over the years as well. And, you know, for me, it's not something that I want to do and people to look at me and go, oh, you know, what, and I just think it's the right thing to do because, you know, I've kind of had that similar journey. And if people want to, you know, they see me of where I've, you know, kind of come from and they look at the, you know, themselves and go, oh, I want to go and play football one day. If I can try and help them as much as possible, I think it, yeah, it means a world. The Dakar Rally is the ultimate off-road challenge. Perfect for the ultimate defender.

The high-performance defender, Octa, 626 horsepower twin turbo V8 engine and intelligent 6D dynamics air suspension. Learn more at landrover.ca. To me to do that. The Football Interview on the Football Daily Podcast and BBC IPlayer. We are back with the Fantasy 606 podcast. Whoa, well, Chris, I've got to stop you there. We have changed our name this season to the FPL podcast from BBC Sports.

All you need to do is search for FPL, and if you already subscribe to our podcast, you don't need to do anything at all. Chris, have a guess what the code to join. The BBC Sport League is. Was it 5E? It's BBC FPL. Oh. Oh, yeah. Come and play the game with us as we continue to teach Chris about fantasy Premier League.

The FPL podcast from BBC Sports. Listen on BBC Sounds. The Football Interview on the Football Daily podcast. I want to know more about your dad. I'm fascinated by him because he's come up, I reckon, multiple times already. He was an ex-footballer, right? And he played semi-professional. Is that correct?

Yeah, yeah. He played for conference level, Forest Grove. and Worcester, those sorts of teams, to Hereford, for a couple of years. And he's had quite a big impact in terms of you even now, is it correct that you still follow his pre-season training routine that he does with you? Yeah, well, I just, this pre-season, the year before was a Euro, so I didn't really have a massive time gap. So this summer was the first time where I didn't get called up for England.

So I had a kind of a five, six-week period. So I went home for three weeks, I think it was. and we were training on the famous potato fields every single day it's been the first time that I've done it in probably a couple of years just because like I said I had the Euros and I think before we had when I made my day be the Nations League camp where there was four games so I've had a full kind of pre-season with him this season I had you know my brother was doing it with me my sister was doing it with me

even Danny came out for a couple of times and done it was she doing it as well yeah we all we all kind of if you looked at it you would have what the hell is going on with these group of people here. Luckily, it's quite a quiet place where we are. You know, my dad, my dad was the kind of instructor, so to speak. It was like his boot camp, we called it. But, you know, there was just us running around these potato fields. And I thought, if anyone sees us, they're going to think, what is this?

What are these group of four people doing? But, you know, we've done it. And, you know, it's something that, you know, I've done throughout my career. So I wanted to do it and we done it. And last summer at the Euros as well, he obviously followed. Does he come, firstly, does he come to West Ham Games? Does he travel? As much as he can, yeah.

Yeah, he tries, yeah, it's far, but he tries to come to as many games. He's already thinking about, I think, the Sunderland game, he's got his camper van. He's like, I'm going to drive my camper van. I'm glad you brought the camper van up because I wanted to talk to you about the camper van, because that camper van went to the Euros, isn't it? Oh, yeah, we spoke, yeah, I remember we spoke about, yeah, camper van went to the Euros. There was him, my brother, my two best mates. They all had to go at driving it.

Two of my best mates were awful at driving. I think they nearly wrote the camper van off, driving on a different side. But yeah, he's got that camper van for, you know, he'll go for a little trips away with it. But then he's already thinking of the Sunderland game that he's going to drive. He's already planned his route out. He's already found some like caravan park where he's going to park it and then come up there. But, yeah, he came out to the Euros in that camper van as well. And is it correct that he had a trial at West Ham?

Yeah, I always get asked about this, but I never want to get it wrong because I'm sure he had, I think he was at Worcester City at the time. And I think it was Harry Rednett was, I think, in charge here. He had like a game and I think they wanted to sign him. But I think then Worcester asked for X amount of money when they was, you know, I think conference, maybe the step below the conference. And it didn't materialise. But, yeah, I don't think he's got any regrets about when it's just his kind of story of, you know,

he had a trial at West Ham and now his sons, you know, here playing at West Ham. So sometimes in football, weird things can definitely happen. Yeah, it feels a bit like a fate that you've got there. Yeah, yeah, a little bit, yeah. It must be quite nice talking about your family because obviously now you've married into another rather famous family. You got married this summer. Firstly, how was the wedding? No, it was good.

We had good weather for it, which was always, I think, a worry for it. Change the dates a couple of times. I think the week later when we was meant to get married, it rained all day. So, yeah, lucky that we managed to go and everything went well. It's, you know, the day, you look forward to the day so much. And then it feels like once it's there, it's the day's over. but yeah really nice day and you are a father now to two twin girls that is it right that you had those girls just a couple of weeks after winning the trophy yeah before so the season always

finishes at the end of may so i remember we played lester away um so i went to lester didn't play was on the bench and then we went to portugal for four days before the final was like a team bonding kind of thing and then we went to prague like two days before so that first like 10 days i think i see the kids once Poor damn it was pretty hard work but then I came back after that and then spent as much time with them but yeah they're um yeah it changes your life people always ask you what's it like until you experience it it's so hard to put into words like what it is until you have your own but yeah love them to pieces my next question what does a typical day off look like for you imagine if i'd have asked you this a couple of years it would have been quite different to now

carnage there's no lion you know i used to love my sleep and wake up at 10 o'clock and just those around and just see what the day is going to bring but now they're up three of them in the else so it's downstairs dan is running around like sprinting around the house she's sweating every morning and i just kind of come on down and just think i'm quite a relaxed person and you know dan is sprinting around the house and then there's me just asking if i can do anything and i feel like i'm in the wrong all the time but um yeah it's day off will be depends if the little boy's got nursery If it's a Thursday, then he doesn't have a nursery. And if I have a day off on a Thursday, you've got to take them out

because you cannot stay at home with them all day because they'll drive you mad. So it's just entertaining them as much as possible. So a day off will just be. We'll probably go out for the day somewhere, just probably for more our mental health as well because we're going out and they're just, you stay inside of them, it's carnage.

But yeah, we'll probably go to a little park or something. Probably cut their knees to pieces. It's probably hurt himself somehow. But yeah, that would probably be now. a typical day off. Is that your escape from football? When I'm at home it's I want to spend as much time with them as possible. It's my family, it's our family. And then when it's, you know, when I'm coming into football, I know it's training for a few hours and I'm hard work. So I think it's good to have that kind of that split, that balance. Football is such a difficult, you know, physically,

obviously it's tough. Mentally it's really difficult as well. So I think to when you go home and to spend that time with your loved ones, for me, I try and balance it as much as possible where you lose a game, you come home. I try and not be, try and ruin the household too much if we've lost the game because, you know, I can't change what's happened. It's just kind of, it is what it is, that's happened, we've lost the game. Now it's time, you know, family time. What are you most proud of?

Probably my family in terms of the kids I've got, you know, my mum and dad, the whole kind of network of family, and I'm really close with, you know, his uncle's, nans, granddad's, trying to spend as much time together as possible with us. So I'd say that's one thing that I'm really proud of that I've got. you know such a loving family lots of siblings lots of cousins as well and you know we're so close as a group so i'd probably say that's what i'm most proud of tell me one thing about you that might surprise me well we actually done a thing when we was away as a group we'd like spoke

as a as a big group and we always like kind of told each other about you know who we were growing up as a team like a team bonding kind of thing and i said to people that i played a lot of rugby when I was younger and I actually enjoyed playing rugby more than football and they was all shocked to pieces because I think like I said I remember saying it was quite a small area where I'm from so our school team was the same for football the same for cricket the same for hockey and the same for rugby and I played rugby I said my dad played rugby I got an uncle that plays rugby my little cousin plays Leicester Tigers now he's 17 18 so I actually really enjoyed rugby when I was

growing obviously I was probably better at football and everyone knows the football story because I'm here now to talk about it. So no one would know that if I was a professional at rugby player, then I'd be speaking about rugby. But yeah, I really enjoyed rugby growing up. What's one thing that people get wrong about you the most? That I'm quiet and... You're not quiet, no? I think quiet as a captain and a leader. I think that's one thing that... I think people underestimate me because I'm quite... I said I'm laid back and stuff, I am.

But I think when it comes to football and winning and having the best, being in charge of the group, I think people always kind of maybe mis-underestimate it and think that I'm quieter. So I'd say that would be one thing. If you could only achieve one more thing for the rest of your career, what would it be? Ooh, I've got one that I'd love to do here when I'm at the club. I'd love to win the FA Cup. Because I think growing up, watching football, the most prestigious English Cup competition, some brilliant stories about, like you've seen through the years, see Crystal Palace win it last year and what it meant for them as a club

and the fans, the celebrations that they add and to see someone different win it was I really enjoyed Crystal Palace seeing them win the FA Cup because it was a moment for them that they might not have expected to happen so I think obviously I'd love to win the league, love for playing the Champions League

but I think something that I'd love to do this season I think I'd love to win the FA Cup as a club. Brilliant, thank you very much, Tara. Thank you. Thank you.