‘I just want to give back. It’s a cliche, but true’
Sunderland striker Duncan Watmore tells Sam Wallace about his new sense of purpose
It is a small but growing band of footballers signed up to Juan Mata’s Common Goal project, from Mats Hummels to the American women’s star Alex Morgan, and Duncan Watmore, the first Championship player on board, is adamant that doing so will change the way he sees his career. The Sunderland striker, recently back from 10 months out with a ruptured cruciate ligament, is already something of a man apart in football, signed as a teenager from non-league Altrincham after his first year as an undergraduate at Manchester University. He moved to the North East, switched his degree course to Newcastle University and graduated with first-class honours in economics and business ss management two years ago.
He never r set out to be a footballer – after Manchester United’s academy ademy rejected him aged 12 – and nd he decided to take the opportunity to be a happy-gopy-golucky teenager, ager, playing cricket cket and rugby and doing A-levels vels in maths, physics and d economics. . Yet here he e is now, a former mer England Under-21, the he player of the he Under-20s
2016 Toulon n Tournament and, by his own admission, something of an accidental footballer.
He is giving one per cent of his salary to the charities supported by Mata’s Common Goal for a simple reason: it feels like the game he plays, already crucial in his life, will mean more. “As a footballer, I didn’t come down the conventional route,” he says. “It’s not something I expected to do my whole life. It was kind of thrown on me when I was 19. The main reason for me [signing up to Common Goal] is just giving back. It’s a cliche, but it is true.
“It also gives my job a bit more meaning. Playing football is a very enjoyable job and I am lucky to do it. By committing to something like this, it gives you a sense of purpose. The way they have done it, you don’t really notice one per cent but it contributes, and if everyone does it, it can contribute a lot.”
The fact that his contributions will be salary-linked means that as his career progresses, and his earnings rise, so too wil will his contribution – a pe performancerelated way of gi giving. “You think of the jobs people do in the world and I am just playing football football,” he says. “It gives you a s sense of purpose when y you know the money could be going to something w worthwhile, whether that is this country or gl globally. “It is not ju just football, it has a wide wider influence. For me, the main area I want to go down is to link with my educati education – I was lucky e enough to get a d degree.” He was a part part-time foo footballer livi living in halls of r residence on a corridor with nine others in Manchester’s student heartland of Fallowfield when Sunderland bought him in 2013. His progress had been rapid until that game against Leicester City in December when his left knee buckled and he was left with months of rehabilitation to reflect on how quickly his life had changed.
As footballers go, there is no question that Watmore is different. His father Ian was once the Football Association chief executive and is now the First Civil Service Commissioner.
His two older brothers, Alex and Guy, have both followed their father’s original profession, management consultancy. His younger brother Nick has just graduated from Cambridge University with a maths degree. Their mother Georgina is a vicar in the Cheshire town of Tarporley and he himself is a Christian who attends his mother’s services when he can. “I enjoy watching her do sermons, she is very interactive … it’s not one of those when you are nodding off,” he says.
He is also well-placed to rebut the old contention that all footballers are thick, which he does with conviction. “I genuinely don’t think so. To be a footballer there’s a game intelligence. I’ve seen people who haven’t made it because they haven’t got the game intelligence. They might have having already sacked Simon Grayson and now, bottom of the Championship, facing the prospect of a battle to stay out of League One. Watmore’s own return has been slow, with six games so far and the reality that he remains a long way from his full potential.
“It has fairly obviously been a rubbish time for us in the last couple of years. Frustrating. Great club and a shame we are in the position we are. There is no point feeling sorry for ourselves. The only way is up and we need to stick together. We have to do the basics right because we have the talent to be in a much better position.”
While Watmore tries to turn things around on the park, he has the added incentive of earning his bit for Common Goal. “You look around the world and the difference between being male or female can affect whether you get education,” he says. “I look at Malala [ Yousafzai] who couldn’t get education in her country. If football can help in any way, it is a great thing to be involved in.”