Football Focus: “I love being part of a team and fighting for a win”

Hi, my name is Owen Bainbridge, I’m 28 years old and I live in Herefordshire. I have congenital glaucoma, which means I am blind.   

I play football for the Royal National College team in Herefordshire and I also play for England on their national blind football team. I’m currently recovering from two knee operations so I’m supporting my teammates from the stand at this year’s FA Disability Cup. However, I played in last year’s cup and we won!

When I am in full time training I train around seven to 10 sessions a week. I’m still doing some training whilst recovering, this is to keep my fitness levels up and I hope to be back later this year.

I’ve been playing football domestically and internationally for about nine years. My journey began when I moved from mainstream school to attend the Blind and Visually Impaired New College in Worcester. It is here I met a guy playing for the Worcester Blind Team, and at 18 years old I went down to my first training session with them. From this I then started playing in the league.

In April 2010, at 20 years old, I got capped for the very first time and it was for the England vs Germany match. The feeling of being capped for the first time was unbelieve. There isn’t a feeling like it. It’s a feeling that’s always there – you never lose it. I now have 55 caps to date and I still get the same buzz every time I play for my country. 

I have a lot of passion for football and I generally get excited before playing any game. There’s lots of aspects I love about the game but what I most enjoy is being a part of a team and fighting to win a game. It’s the feeling of you’re all in this together; you win together, you lose together and that’s what it’s about.

My proudest footballing achievement and one of the best feelings I’ve had was when I went over to Spain with the team in 2014. We had three friendlies against them over three days. The first two games saw us draw 0-0. In the last few minutes of the final game it was 0-0 but we got a penalty and I scored it! Spain was the current European Champions at the time and to beat them was fantastic. Scoring the winning penalty was unbelievable and even though it was just a friendly it still really meant something. I’ve scored a lot of penalties since then but this one has kept with me. 

The feeling of representing your country can’t be replicated and it’s something I’ve learnt to embrace in the moment. Nothing can match it. 

The support of my family, friends and teammates has been massive throughout my footballing career. You need people around you who are understanding because you can be gone for weeks. I’ve been very lucky to have such a supportive and encouraging network around me to allow me to progress how far I have. They’ve embraced me playing and that feeling of support is great.

With originally being from County Durham and all my family supporting Sunderland, that’s my team too. My favourite player is Kevin Phillips.

I’m looking forward to the World Cup this summer. I like how they’ve been playing and we have quite a young squad, so I think we may be a little bit surprised. I think it will be hard work but I’m not a pessimist and I think there is potential.

I’m also looking forward to watching the FA Disability Cup this time round too. It’s a big day and it’s an enjoyable experience. I feel disability football needs to be publicised as much as possible and events like the FA Disability Cup is a great platform for blind football.

Ultimately publicity is what grows the sport. The more the sport grows and is promoted, the more players we will have coming through at grassroots level. Playing in front of big crowds is fantastic but more than anything it’s about somebody who doesn’t know about blind football, to then see it on the TV and think I’d like to give that a go. Even if one person finds out about blind football because of the publicity that comes from the FA Disability Cup games, then it’s a win.

 My main piece of advice to disabled people who are wanting to be more active but are not too sure how to start is – there are so many different opportunities out there now, why not have what everyone else has? Just go out and go for it, and if you don’t like it go and find something else. There’s Centres of Excellences throughout the country for blind football and you can just turn up and have a go. Even if you’ve never kicked a ball before you’d be welcomed with open arms to do some training or just have a little bit of fun.

For more information about blind football opportunities, visit England Blind Football Association website.

Find out more about the FA Disability Cup Finals weekend at St George’s Park on 16-17 June 2018.