Later this month, more than two billion people in over 160 countries across the world will celebrate the annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ.
The Son of God’s birth is celebrated in countries which observe the Gregorian calendar, including the United Kingdom, on 25 December each year, when people of faith across the Western Christian and many parts of the Eastern Orthodox Christian world observe Christmas religiously with their families and friends by attending church, eating a feast meal and exchanging gifts.
Christmas, of course, is also marked culturally by many non-Christians, who enjoy the holiday season which has developed around it.
Over the past 150 years, football has also traditionally become a part of Christmas, with matches being played on 25 December during the Victorian era – primarily because it was not a working day – before habits changed, but not before some players refused to turn out for their clubs on religious grounds.
With society preferring to spend Christmas Day with their families, 26 December, Boxing Day, has since become a date on which competitive games have been played at all levels.
While football may no longer be played on Christmas Day – although the first Premier League match to be played on Christmas Eve since 1995 will take place this month – faith and football remain indelibly linked, with players of a multitude of religious faiths and denominations performing at all levels in this country and across the world.
Among them is West Ham United’s Ben Johnson.
A practising Christian, Johnson worships at All Saints Church in Woodford Green with his family.
He previously attended Davenant Foundation School in Loughton, where Christians of all denominations are educated together to develop closer relationships and promote unity.
For the defender, his faith is central to his life, giving him a belief in God and a foundation around which to lead his life – a foundation that helped him maintain a strong and consistent outlook on his life through its ups and downs, on and off the pitch.
It has also given him the opportunity to meet and later be reunited with Jessie, his old school friend who became his fiancée earlier this year when the couple were engaged to be married.
For Johnson, 2023 has therefore been an unforgettable year, for so many reasons.
The No2 has played just 17 times for the Hammers – the Club he joined at the age of seven – and started on just ten occasions, taking his total number of appearances in Claret and Blue to 89 since debuting at Manchester City in the Premier League almost five years ago in February 2019.
However, two of those appearances came in the UEFA Europa Conference League knockout stages, in a home win over AEK Larnaca and draw away at KAA Gent, and he was one of the 20 players who were part of the squad when the Irons defeated Fiorentina 2-1 in Prague in the final in June.
After touring Newham on an open-top bus and celebrating with his teammates and an estimated 70,000 supporters, Johnson joined up with the England squad for the UEFA European U21 Championship finals in Georgia.
The full-back appeared as a substitute in the opening group-stage victory over Czech Republic, then started wins over Israel and Germany, only for two bookings to rule him out of the quarter-final win over Portugal through suspension. He would not appear again as Lee Carsley’s side defeated Israel and Spain to win the competition.
And so it was that Johnson lifted two trophies and received two winner’s medals, but at the same time the experience was tinged with the slight disappointment of not appearing in either final.
Again, his faith sustained him as, in Johnson’s mind, the experiences were all part of God’s greater plan, just as it was when he randomly met Jessie again at church, years after the pair had attended the same school, and the pair struck up a relationship that will soon become a marriage.
As Christmas approaches, and billions of people prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, West Ham United’s versatile, likeable defender sat down to talk about his faith, his family and his football…
All years are different have highs and lows.
The extreme high of 2023 was obviously getting engaged to my girlfriend Jessie, which is one of the biggest and best moments of my life and it always will be.
Being engaged is great and now we look forward to getting married and everything like that.
Of course, winning the Europa Conference League with West Ham and the European Championship with England in the space of a month was just such a strange feeling as well.
To actually win something with West Ham, which hasn't been done for however many years, was odd, and having a real parade around and being serenaded in east London was a mad experience, but a great one. It was something that will be remembered from the West Ham fans for a long time.
Now a lot is expected from us, because we've got the calibre of players to win a trophy.
I'm sure the fans will be looking for us to win an FA Cup and EFL Cup and why not? So, we'll see how we get on in this year's competitions.
Jessie and I kind of knew each other from school, as we went to the same school, Davenant, where we were in the same English class.
We were kind of different people then. I was kind of brash, being the young footballer in the school, and Jessie was quite shy and she stayed close to her friends, so we never really spoke in school.
I actually hardly ever saw her in school as I’d be on the field playing football and she’d be around the science blocks with her friends.
So then for us to come back together and for Jessie to be my fiancée and future wife is funny and it’s really nice.
How we met again is a nice story, too!
Jessie’s Dad is a minister and she messaged me because the former West Ham midfielder John Moncur is a Christian and is quite close to her Dad and he was sharing at her Dad’s small church, so she asked me to come as I was obviously at West Ham.
I went, not thinking anything of it and I’ll never forget it. When I arrived, she was talking to a family friend and I’ll admit it, I immediately had the eyes for her!
I was thinking ‘She’s nice. She’s attractive’ and we started to get talking and it kind of just happened organically. I went back to their meetings a few times over the summer of 2021 and a few weeks down the line I asked her Dad if I could take her out on a date. With the way it came about, I thought it was the right thing to ask and I didn’t want to just take her away from her Mum and Dad and be in her life for a short period.
We went out on some dates, the first of which was at the Blue Boar in Abridge, midway between where we both lived, and we were just talking for three or four hours and it was just natural. I knew after the first date, straight away, and fortunately we built on it and now we are going to settle down together!
Jessie is a Personal Assistant to two headteachers at two different schools, which is a hard job.
She works during term time and works during the half-term holidays as well, so it’s a big job.
She's doing well, she's working hard, she's intelligent and overall, she does that job because she's got a good heart, one of the purest hearts I've seen in anyone, and that's something that challenges me all the time to be a better person.
Jessie has been very important to me, my family and friends this year because they just want to see me play, see me progressing and doing well and succeeding in the profession I am doing, whatever that may be.
So, it’s difficult for them to see that unfortunately I’m not playing as often as we’d all hoped, but as a family we all stay optimistic and that’s from the foundation of our Christian faith, which is to be expectant and optimistic, continue to pray, work hard and be as professional as I can for me and everyone around me.
I think all people have tests. Some people aren't Christians and some are, and everyone goes through tests.
I think, for me, my testing is part of my faith in Jesus Christ. That's what I build my foundation on. I know that the tests are going to build my character and are going to improve me as a person, not just a footballer, as my life goes beyond football and my happiness goes beyond football.
Don't get me wrong, I love football and I want to be the best I can for as long as I can, but the way I'm going to do that is ultimately by giving everything I can to my faith, and I'm sure my football will come hand in hand. So that's kind of how I look at it.
I wasn't born or I didn't grow up as a kid thinking ‘I'm going to be a footballer’. It might have been a dream, but millions of kids want to be footballers. They're not in the position I'm in currently, so I don't think it's a coincidence and that's why my faith in the Lord is so strong, because so many boys could be in my position, but I'm the one doing it, so I have to use it. I don't want to put it to waste.
So that's something that does put pressure on me, I do feel pressure because I don't want to put what I have to waste and, ultimately, I want to be a success as a person first, but then secondly as a good player that I am.
My faith and my football are connected and always will be.
I do believe that there is only one God because I think everyone has something and eventually everyone will get there.
Like, me and other players at West Ham and at other clubs are in football for reason. Football is difficult and I don't think I could do it without my faith which has made me a lot stronger and a lot calmer and it has helped me go further in my life.
