Extra Time Magazine
I write about grassroots football culture for Extra Time Magazine - the stories of identity, community, and connection that shape the game before the mainstream catches on.
Why I Write for Extra Time
There's something special about grassroots football that the big leagues can't replicate. It's the fan-owned club in Scotland running on passion and community ownership. It's the local team getting their first custom kit designed and feeling like they finally belong to something bigger. It's the stories that don't make headlines but matter more to the people living them.
Extra Time Magazine covers that side of football - the culture and communities that make the game what it really is. I write for them because these are the stories worth telling. The ones about identity, belonging, and what happens when people build something together instead of just consuming what's handed to them.
The Stories I Tell
I chase the moments where football culture intersects with real human connection. So far, I have covered stories ranging from how a custom kit can transform a grassroots club's entire identity. Why fan ownership works when traditional models fail communities. What makes a boot launch resonate beyond just product specs. I've profiled Turkish legend Ogün Temizkanoğlu about playing across continents, covered Icarus Football's mission to give clubs kits that actually mean something, written cover stories on Under Armour's Magnetico 4 launch, and explored the Caledonian Braves' fan-ownership revolution.
Every piece is about finding what people genuinely care about before the mainstream narrative takes over and flattens it.
What Football Taught Me About Marketing
Writing about football culture taught me something agencies spend years trying to understand: authenticity isn't a strategy you manufacture, it's what happens when you genuinely understand what people care about and why.
This carries into every marketing project I touch. I learned to spot emerging trends by watching what grassroots communities build. I learned to tell stories that tap into what people actually value instead of what focus groups say they should want. And I learned that the best marketing work comes from genuine curiosity about why people care.
The craft itself matters too. Every article means interviewing people who live these stories, synthesising complex culture into something readable without killing what makes it special, and finding the human truth. Those same instincts drive how I approach campaign strategy, write copy, and figure out how to make people care about things they're ignoring.
Football gave me that. Extra Time lets me explore it. Marketing lets me apply it.
