The Premier League season is reaching its climax and Arsenal are favourites to win the title. If they win, it will be the first time they have been champions since 2003-04 when Arsene Wenger was their manager. Being a member of a Premiership winning team is a high point in any player’s career. Only a few players receive a Premiership winner’s medal.
Eberechi Eze is an Arsenal midfielder. He was born in London to Nigerian parents and previously played for Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace. He is married to his childhood sweetheart Naima who has worked as an ICU nurse. Eze is a Christian and speaks openly about his faith in Jesus. He is one of Arsenal’s “Bible Brothers,” a group of players including Bukayo Saka, Jurrien Timber, and Noni Madueke, who pray and study the Bible together to strengthen team unity and support one another’s faith.
Eze says his ultimate goal in football is to glorify God. In a recent interview on the “Men in Blazers” show he said he wants to “win, get to the top and glorify God. I want them to say that ‘in everything he did, he glorified Jesus. That’s my only mission, if I’m honest.’”
Eze says his faith has shaped every stage of his career, from early setbacks to professional success. When he was 13, he was released by Arsenal’s academy. At that time his mother prayed for him. Eze’s perseverance through multiple rejections was rooted in both work and prayer. He said, “The love for football is always there. I never considered doing anything else. The mindset was you work and apply yourself as much as you can. You believe this thing will happen and you pray for it every day, and trust that it will come about.” Looking back on his career Eze says, “I don’t know what will happen. There’ll be ups and there’ll be downs, but I have confidence that God has really played this out for me and for my whole family.”
Eze says his faith is central to his identity and how he approaches life: “Faith is believing in Jesus Christ. What did Jesus Christ tell me to do? Gonna follow that, gonna live by that. That puts things into perspective of what this life really is. There’s something far more important, far greater than all of this. That’s what faith is to me. It anchors my life. It teaches me how to treat people, how to love people and let go of myself. It’s not about me. Jesus Christ has taught me that.”