Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Alfie Whiteman is having a moment, and weirdly it’s not because of what he’s doing on the football pitch. Late last month he made his major radio debut, presenting an eclectic mix of jazz fusion, psychedelia, funk, and soul on NTS Radio, a London-based station that broadcasts in over 50 countries both over-air and online and is known for its eclectic musical broadcasting. The website background of Alfie’s mix features a still of Millhouse from The Simpsons, standing alone and forlorn on a playset.
It’s wild stuff, and illuminating of a player that has slipped under radar of most Tottenham fans over the past number of years. In fact, based on the attention he’s gotten over the past few weeks, Alfie just might have just inherited the mantle (from Eric Dier, no less) of the most interesting player on Spurs’ squad.
Let’s start with that radio mix. “Sweet Tooth” opens with a jazz fusion track by David Axelrod, and the hourlong set melds through a hazy series of songs by artists including the Cocteau Twins, Vincent Gallo, Elliot Smith, Jon Brion, and even a track from the soundtrack to the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It’s contemplative and mellow, the kind of music you put on after a long day at work as you sink into your easy chair with a glass of bourbon. I listened to it in full and I love it, it is EXACTLY my jam, though no doubt it would definitely be an outlier in most football locker rooms and clearly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. (It’s definitely not Taylor Swift, right Richarlison?)
That doesn’t seem to be something that particularly bothers Alfie. It’s clear that he’s a guy who has figured out who he is, acknowledges that he’s different from most people, and is perfectly okay with that outcome. In an interview with The Fader (omg, a Spurs player with an interview in The Fader, you’ll never sing that), Whiteman talks about his melancholic set that bounces around between genres, and how he put it together.
“I definitely genre jumped a bit, which I think is fine. I don’t know the rules of it so I built it almost like you’re in my headphones. It was the start of the new year so I picked songs with a kind of more somber tone. I gravitate towards the sadder things, whether that’s film, photos, or music just because of the emotion that they can evoke. Even the Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders track, it could be a sad song but it’s also a very powerful happy track.
“My dad had a big influence on my music taste and choices. Growing up I was constantly hearing him playing his jazz records in the car. He would also take me to see live shows, too. He took me to Roy Ayers’s last show in London at Ronnie Scotts. I was very lucky. At the time I wouldn’t really think too much about it, but now I realize how cool that was. So the David Axelrod track is one from home. In my record collection at home there’s a lot of stolen records from my dad’s collection. Every time I go around I’ll take one record and then my dad will text me, like, ‘Have you been at it again?’”
It goes deeper than music. Whiteman’s Instagram feed is full of sun-dappled, sometimes intentionally grainy, occasionally mildly racy, photographs of himself and those close to him, along with snippets of video, reflecting an obvious interest in photography and film that seems far removed from the highly-regimented and extremely public life of a top-flight professional footballer. His style can be described as low-key neo-hipster cool, all trucker caps and knit woolen beanies, t-shirts with Arabic print, blue jeans, hoodies.
Alfie just released a book titled Pill Face (which you can purchase!) that features nothing but photographs of silly faces he’s made from the various supplements, vitamins, and medications he takes as part of his fitness regimen, and advertised with self-deprecating humor.
‼️‼️‼️PILL FACE‼️‼️‼️
Have you ever wondered, ‘How is Alfie’s skin so good? His hair & nails so healthy? He never seeming [sic] to look tired & fatigued as well as being so mentally stable?’
Well fear not, because if you have been pondering these mysteries & wanting feel more like me, you can now buy a little book containing the vitamins I take.
There are 67 pages of silly faces constructed and consumed by me, as well as a contents page where all pills are labelled.
All copies will be hand signed 🙂 ‼️link in bio‼️
(Disclaimer: sufficient sleep, a healthy diet (one sweet treat per day allowed) and adequate exercise recommended for noticeable improvements in wellbeing)
Earlier I mentioned how Whiteman’s (for lack of a better term) interestingness seems to mirror that of Eric Dier, a guy similarly full of multitudes, known for hawking avocados, creating his own restaurant app, and taking EasyJet flights to Morocco on vacation. So should we be surprised that the two got along famously? No, we should not.
“Eric Dier was playing for Spurs for a while and I got along with him, he’s gone to Bayern Munich now. But me and him would share a few songs. Obviously, before games it’s quite stereotypical what you might imagine, probably some Drake and Lil Baby or something along those lines. But I also don’t dislike that music. It’s not what I listen to all the time, but I can listen to it. Before games I feel like there’s a whole thing of being a Gladiator ready to go out to battle and to fight your life. People might play “Lose Yourself” by Eminem and I get that, don’t get me wrong. I’ve had the Prodigy, and Mobb Deep in my headphones before.”
And what does he listen to for hype music? Uhhhhhhhhhhh.
“Maybe some Aphex Twin or Brian Eno, maybe even a bit of Boards of Canada. I have a whole ambient playlist that I listen to even when I travel to training and I have a 20-minute walk in the morning. I’m often listening to a sort of more mellow, calming music.”
But that’s just who he is. This isn’t an affect, or a persona that he invents as a face for the public. It’s a perfect expression of his true self, and it feels like a big step for Whiteman to put himself forward for public perception like this.
“When you think about hipster, I’m thinking a fisherman beanie and Red Wing boots. My teammates do call me a hippie but I’m not trying to be anything niche. It’s just what I like, it’s just who I am. I’ve kind of kept my private life separate from my work life until now because I didn’t want to use a football to boost other things. I wanted to have my organic life away from work and just be Alfie, but now it’s like, it’s got to happen. I’m not like I’m a superhero living two lives.”
In short, Alfie Whiteman is a guy who’s eclectic, self-assured, and comfortable in his own skin. He seems awesome. I love him. I want to be his friend.
It’s a sad reality of modern football that very often the people you come to appreciate as fans in your chosen sports teams don’t stick around for long. Alfie is 25 now and only has one senior appearance for the club, the 4-0 Europa League win over Ludogorets in 2020. He’s spent much of the past two seasons on loan in Sweden, and is currently behind his academy teammate and friendly competitor Brandon Austin as Spurs’ fourth choice keeper. It’s unlikely that he’ll be at the club much longer, although his contract runs through 2025 and he’s been linked with a move away for so long it almost feels cliche to mention it. But wherever he goes next, I’m convinced he’ll remain Alfie Whiteman, and in my opinion that’s pretty cool.
It’s unlikely I’ll ever get to meet Whiteman, but despite the 22-year age difference between us I think we’d get along. I’d love to sit down with him over a beer (or a scotch?) and talk music, and art, what he likes to read and how he spends his free time. Does he play board games? Has he ever roasted his own coffee? Maybe we could even talk a bit of football. Alfie, if you’re reading this, my email’s in my profile.