Faith, family, football: his trilogy of values
Fabrice Muamba tells Alyson Rudd that without the guidance of the Bolton chaplain, he might not have had the belief in God that ‘‘rescued’’ him.
Fabrice Muamba has just been chatting to a group of teenagers who have been invited to the Reebok Stadium as part of a series of events aimed at convincing them of the value of education. When Muamba speaks, even the most disaffected youths listen. He is the Miracle Man.
Muamba shakes his head when I call his recovery from the cardiac arrest he suffered during Bolton Wanderers’ FA Cup quarterfinal against Tottenham Hotspur just more than a year ago a miracle – but it is hard to think of a better description. The midfielder was technically dead for 78 minutes, but here he is strolling around the Reebok with Joshua, his five-year-old son. Also at his side is Phil Mason, the Bolton chaplain and the man Muamba says helped to save his life.
Chaplaincy is flourishing in football but Bolton are the only club in the UK who employ one full-time. Muamba, 24, did not join the club five years ago because of Mason but, he says, as a committed Christian it was a ‘‘bonus’’ to find out that his new club had a spiritual presence.
With Mason close by, Muamba was reminded daily of his faith and able to ignore the trappings of fame and fortune. Without the chaplain, he says, he might have let his prayers slip and if he had, he might not have survived.
‘‘It would be easy to get lost in the whole environment of football,’’ Muamba says. ‘‘Having a chaplain helps you stay grounded and speaking to God is a huge part of any Christian. Having a chaplain in this environment helps in many ways.
‘‘When I signed here I knew there was a chaplain and we would pray before the game. Having a spiritual time was important . . . he has a huge role.’’
Muamba has no doubt that God intervened to save him because he prayed and read the Bible regularly when it would have been all too easy to let his faith slip.
‘‘Science did a part, God is the main part,’’ Muamba says. ‘‘ What would happen if somebody collapsed for ten minutes with no oxygen? The outcome would be very bad. You should be braindamaged. But 78 minutes? You think why. I tried to live my life as well as I can and when I was in trouble He rescued me.’’
Having a chaplain at the Reebok not only helped Muamba to maintain his faith, it also meant that when he collapsed, the stadium became a kind of church. That too, Muamba says, aided his remarkable recovery. Mason opened up the Reebok to fans and locals so that they could pop in and say a prayer for the player.
‘‘You are praying for someone you don’t know who is in hospital,’’ Muamba says. ‘‘That shows the wonders of God. I responded to that. The more Phil came to see me in hospital, the more I realised it was a big issue. He told me ‘people are praying for you’ and that kind of news strengthens your mind and strengthens your faith. Maybe just ten seconds of a prayer helped me to get to where I am today.’’
Mason has been Bolton chaplain for the past ten years, but the busiest he has ever been was in the weeks after Muamba’s collapse.
‘‘Last year at this time was incredible,’’ he says. ‘‘In the hospital, Fabrice and his family, they were my focus. When you stepped away you realised that wider support was needed.
‘‘We opened the Reebok stadium for prayer on the Tuesday for staff and in the evening we opened for the public and hundreds came along. Phil Gartside [the Bolton chairman] opened his suite. People lit candles and wrote prayers and every 20 minutes I did a reflection on how within our club three words are very important; faith, family and football.’’
When players at Bolton are about to run out on to the pitch, they pass a plaque with those words on it. Gartside has said that clubs who do not appoint a chaplain are guilty of ‘‘corporate negligence’’. His verdict seems logical. As Mason and Muamba walk towards the club’s reception area, a member of staff asks the chaplain if he can speak to a colleague whose daughter has just had cancer diagnosed.
‘‘Phil Mason is a good person, a good man of God,’’ Muamba says. ‘‘He does so much for the club that people don’t know about and I’m very grateful he is part of my life. He blessed my marriage.’’
Mason was approached by Bolton after he had helped to coordinate the Church’s response to the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002. ‘‘I felt I was the wrong person,’’ he says. ‘‘I was not interested in football and was scared of going into that environment. They said they were not after a glory-hunter and it grew and grew. I became a convert to football and converts are the worst kind really.’’
His appointment meant that not only did the club have the ideal person to handle the community’s response to Muamba’s collapse, they had a chaplain on site to help players, staff and supporters when Gary Speed, who made 121 appearances for Bolton, died in November 2011.
People started to speak to him about depression and the frailty of life. ‘‘Football is such a focus that if anything happens in it, it magnifies out into the wider community,’’ he says.
‘‘At a time when the Church has become displaced from the heart of the community, people are still searching spiritually for some kind of identity, some kind of fixed point. People will come as they did when Gary Speed died and Fabrice collapsed."