THE PLAYBOOK
At Life After Football, the game was never the whole story. It was always about the person behind it.
Football may be the starting point, but it has never been the final destination. From the beginning, Life After Football set out to show a different side of the world around the sport. Not the ninety minutes everyone already talks about, but the life that surrounds it. The pressure, the identity, the transition, the ambition, and the person behind the player.
What started without a masterplan became a platform with a clear point of view. Back in 2006, the intention was not to simply launch another football title. It was to bring a message into the world that felt both necessary and overdue.
“We actually started very spontaneously,” they say. “We did not really have a fixed plan. But we had energy, and we knew we wanted to bring a message out. That message was that after football, a completely new life begins. A new rhythm, a new routine, a new way of living.”
That idea became the foundation of Life After Football. Not as a publication obsessed with results, transfers, or headlines, but as a lifestyle platform built around the human side of the game. The ambition was to reframe how footballers were seen, not just as athletes, but as people moving through careers, pressure, change, and life beyond the pitch.
For Regi Blinker, one moment still stands out as the true beginning. Not the preparation, not the months spent building quietly in the background, but the morning after the launch in October 2006.
“For me, it was the day after the launch,” he says. “We had worked on Life After Football behind the scenes for a long time. Then the next morning, I woke up in a hotel in Hilversum and saw all these news flashes coming in, messages on my Blackberry, reactions from people everywhere. Luckily they were positive. That was the moment it really hit me. This was the birth of Life After Football, but also the moment of realization that we might have created something very special.”
That realization mattered, because from day one the platform was built on a belief that still feels distinctive now. While most media around football focuses on the match itself, Life After Football chose a different lens. The real interest was never limited to performance. It was in the personality, the mindset, the lifestyle, and the world behind the public image.
“We always talk about the person and the lifestyle of a footballer. That immediately takes you to very different areas than what happens on the pitch”
“I think what makes us different is that we talk as little as possible about the game itself,” they explain. “We always talk about the person and the lifestyle of a footballer. That immediately takes you to very different areas than what happens on the pitch. Everyone already has an opinion about performance. We always felt it was more important to ask, who is the person behind that footballer? What is going on in that player’s mind?”
That focus also revealed something many people still underestimate. From the outside, footballers are often seen through a simplified lens. Success, salary, status. But that image rarely reflects the reality of what players carry, especially at a young age.
“What I think people do not fully understand is that players are under a huge amount of pressure from a very young age,” they say. “People often say, they earn enough, so they should be able to handle it. But even then, you see more and more that players struggle with pressure, with fear of failure, with insecurity, which is something everyone deals with in life.”
According to them, that pressure is often internalized rather than expressed. Players keep going because they feel they have to. The outside world sees performance, but not always the emotional cost behind it. In some cases, that pressure becomes so heavy that walking away feels like the only option.
“I have seen players who simply felt that pressure was not something they wanted to continue living with, so they stopped. That is quite intense. The pressure players are under is bigger than most people think. A lot of it gets hidden away. Only later, once they are done with football, do they dare to speak more openly about it.”
That understanding has shaped the editorial DNA of Life After Football ever since. The platform was never designed to sit at the edge of football culture. It was built to broaden it. To show that the lives of players contain much more than matchday analysis and public opinion. Style, family, business, personal development, uncertainty, reinvention, all of it belongs in the conversation.
Just as important is the fact that Life After Football was never conceived as only a magazine. Even at launch, the thinking was already much bigger. The print product may have been the first visible expression, but the idea behind it was always platform driven.
“Already at the launch itself, there was more than just a magazine. There was brand exposure, there were events, there was already a broader concept”
“Everyone knows us from the magazine we launched in October 2006,” they say. “But very soon after that, actually already at the launch itself, there was more than just a magazine. There was brand exposure, there were events, there was already a broader concept. That platform way of thinking is something we have had from day one.”
That early vision turned out to be one of the smartest decisions they made. Long before multi channel storytelling became standard, Life After Football was already thinking in terms of ecosystem rather than format. Print, digital, events, brand partnerships, storytelling, community, each part connected to the next.
“We had written it down for ourselves very early. We need a magazine, we need a very strong website, we need events, we need television. At that time, social media did not even exist yet. The idea was always to build a multi channel platform that stays connected, keeps evolving, and remains flexible enough to move with change. That has been a very good choice.”
That adaptability is still central to how they think today. Because for both Regi and Soufian, growth has never only been about business. It is about movement. About staying curious. About refusing to stand still.
Asked what he is still hungry for, the answer is telling. It is not framed around money, status, or a single milestone. It is framed around progression itself.
“I do not necessarily hunger for one thing,” Soufian says. “I am always hungry. When you build something, when you take initiative, you are always looking for the next step forward. People often connect that immediately to money or success, but for me it is about continuing to develop, continuing to move, continuing to grow as a person.”
That distinction says a lot about the spirit of Life After Football. The business and the personal journey have always been intertwined. Not in a superficial way, but in a real one. Growth in one area affects the other. Personal evolution sharpens the business. The business creates new personal demands. Both move together.
“What I said before is that business and private life are intertwined for us. That is simply the reality. So when you grow as a person, that also translates into business. And the other way around as well. It is about constantly moving forward and never standing still.”
That mindset may be the clearest thread running through the entire story. Life After Football was born from instinct, shaped by perspective, and built through evolution. It saw something in football culture that others were not yet paying attention to, and gave it form. Not just as media, but as a way of looking at the game and everyone around it with more depth, more humanity, and more imagination.
In that sense, the name has always meant more than what comes after a career. It also speaks to what exists beyond the surface. Beyond the match. Beyond the image. Beyond the assumptions.
