If you set a football-mad schoolboy a homework task to map out his dream life, chances are it wouldn’t be too far removed from the one Jack Grealish has lived to date. The star player for his beloved hometown club in his early teens. Captain by the age of 24. The most adored member of the national team aged 25. The most expensive English footballer of all time, and a £100m player, aged 26. A Premier League champion nine months later.
Jack has done all of this while pulling off a rare trick – while he’s a pinup to millions of swooning young admirers, he’s also a hero to an older generation who see in him the maverick idols of their youth. Jack could walk into any sixth-form common room or old man pub in the country and find himself adored.
England hasn’t been this universally fascinated by a footballer since David Beckham. And it hasn’t witnessed one so audaciously talented since Gazza. Yet there’s a sense that Jack exists closer to the public than these storied figures. Yes, he’s a ‘rock star’ footballer and the face of an iconic global brand in Nike. But he regularly gives his time to good causes beyond football and was recently signed up to be a proud ambassador for Special Olympics GB.
Jack’s journey began on his school playing fields in Solihull near Birmingham. In this portrait created with Nike, we follow Jack back to that cherished home turf to consider the gap between how it started and how it’s going. Along the way, we meet his proud father Kevin, Kevin’s excitable cavapoo Roger and the Solihull schoolboys dreaming that bit bigger due to Jack’s example.
“I never thought, truthfully, that I’d be where I am now,” says Jack, “and that’s why it’s so nice to come back to places like this and reflect on how far I’ve come.”
To many observers, the moment that marked out his strength of character came during a derby match between Aston Villa and Birmingham City in 2019. Incensed by Jack’s prowess, a Birmingham fan ran onto the pitch and punched Jack in the head from behind. Yet Jack is no ordinary player. He got up, dusted himself off and went on to score the winning goal.
It’s moments of defiance that help make a man a myth, that turn a tyro into a talisman. Not that anyone who knew Jack growing up ever doubted his determination to succeed. Aged just five, there was no local side young enough to give him regular game-time – so instead, he turned out for his older brother’s team. He ran the show against boys years his senior.
The next dream on the list for Jack is this winter’s World Cup. If he is to succeed before the eyes of the world at the highest level of the game, it will be due to the modest beginnings that made him who he is today. An everyman icon, born and raised in Solihull.
Credits
Writer Hydall Codeen
Director CHILD
Talent Jack Grealish
Fashion Louis Prier Tisdall
Executive Creative Director Georgina Bacchus
Senior Account Director Tilly Donohoe
Production Claire Nolan, Amy Wilson, Jacob Trappitt