Jamie Carragher has one of the biggest, boldest and most recognisable voices in football. But at a certain point in our conversation, I realised something unexpected: I’d heard this before. Not all of it. Of course not all of it. Carragher’s great success as an analyst for Sky in the UK and CBS in the USA is down to his ability to communicate novel insight, acquired through elite experience, through a filter of unmatched passion. Talking football with this guy? Just as much fun as you imagine it would be. But still…
We met just before Father’s Day to talk about his relationship with his son, James, centre-back for Wigan Athletic in League One and Malta, between Sicily and Tunisia. I wanted to talk to this Champions League winner, capped 38 times for England, about what it’s been like to watch his boy make his way in the game. Carragher senior had just returned from a trip to watch his son play in a double header against Lithuania and Holland.
James started out in the Liverpool academy; there was rejection and a frightening injury as he found his feet at Wigan; he was loaned first to Oldham and then, for a pivotal half-season, to Inverness Caledonian Thistle; he was recruited by Malta in a clandestine coup and ended the 24-25 season with what may well be the final jersey Robert Lewandowski will ever wear for Poland. His father has been alongside him for every kick of this wild ride.
“I told him, football always has been a rollercoaster,” says Jamie. “It’ll never change.” Highs and lows. Terror and exhilaration. The thrill of the unexpected. And yet… the more we talk, the more I notice Carragher slipping into a strangely familiar mode of communication.
This isn’t the guy gliding in front of the giant screen on Monday Night Football, urgently explaining how Arne Slot’s substitutions undid Fulham. Wait a minute…
Jamie Carragher is a football dad. I know loads of football dads. The markings are unmistakeable…
This is a preview of Neil Andrews’ full article, published in Issue 37 of Nutmeg.
You can order your copy now to read it in full, including:
- Dad first, pundit second: Jamie admits he mostly watches James during his matches, tuning out the rest of the game.
- Family roots and pride: how James qualifies to play for Malta.
- Rollercoaster ride: the injuries, rejections, and pandemic-related setbacks that shaped James’s resilience.
- Northern exposure: a pivotal half-season with Inverness Caley in the Scottish Championship, navigating plastic pitches, midweek fixtures, and high-pressure matches.
- Big Dunc: how a Liverpool legend and an Everton icon worked together when Duncan Ferguson recruited James.
- TV or not TV: Jamie thinks commentating on James would be impossible but says watching him grow is more satisfying than any punditry moment.
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