Ben Foster shares insight into his journey from England goalkeeper to YouTuber

Ben Foster has undertaken a giant fish and chips eating challenge and provoked controversy with in-game GoPro footage on his journey from England goalkeeper to YouTube sensation.

Foster reshaped fan engagement with his “The Cycling GK” YouTube channel, which now has 1.45 million subscribers, and the host of the ‘Fozcast’ podcast that has attracted guests such as singer Robbie Williams has not stopped there.

The World Cup is on his 2026 to-do list with Wrexham’s Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, his former employers, lined up for a Stateside chat, and Foster literally wants more on his plate again with Adam Moran, a YouTuber from Leeds.

Competitive eater Moran, better known as BeardMeatsFood, holds several food-related records and his lunch date with Foster left the 42-year-old close to “throwing up” and “constipated”.

“I was in bits for a couple of days after, bloated and heavy. It was horrible,” said Foster. “But I’m going to do another one because Beard is such a good guy.

“A nice little Indian or a Chinese takeaway. How many crispy ducks can you finish?

“This is what I love about YouTube, it’s full of clever, creative and driven people because they do it all for themselves.

“Beard is one of the biggest YouTubers in the UK with hundreds of millions of views – and probably four people go with him on a shoot.

“If you were to do a shoot for a big brand, you could have 30 people on set and the outcome still won’t be as good.

“They live it and know what their viewers want. They’ve got their finger on the pulse, much more than any of those 30 people who are there for a payday.”

Foster won eight England caps but shunned the well-worn path of becoming a goalkeeper coach after making over 500 appearances for Manchester United, Watford and Wrexham among others.

Instead he launched his own YouTube channel as his playing days came to a close, offering behind-the-scenes footage on the life of a professional footballer.

It was a huge hit featuring matchday vlogs and GoPro footage from training and games. The GoPro hit the headlines in January 2021 when Swansea’s Jamal Lowe celebrated in front of the camera after scoring against Foster in a Watford game.

“That got me in so much trouble,” said Foster, whose in-goal GoPro was outlawed by the Premier League.

“They (authorities) said ‘Whoa, hold on a minute’ because the reaction from the fans wasn’t fantastic. They were loving the videos when you win, but as soon as you get a bad result or a bad performance, then the GoPro is the reason.”

The experience did not dim Foster’s enthusiasm for content creation or podcasts, with a growing portfolio now including ‘The Golfing GK’ and ‘That Wrexham Podcast’.

“The Football Fill-In” also provides a space for football debate, up against big industry beasts such as ‘The Overlap’, ‘The Rest is Football’ and ‘That Peter Crouch Podcast’.

Foster said: “The podcast world has exploded and everybody is doing it, but we’re quite lucky we were there from the get-go and ahead of the curve.

“We’ve carried our fans from day one and they’ve stayed with us all the way through, so we get good viewing figures.

“Every episode we’ll get at least 150-200,000 views. If we get a good guest on, it might get half a million.

“We don’t work on subscriptions. It’s all through advertising and sponsorship with brands and companies having their logo on podcasts.

“It’s only going to keep growing. There’s no active Premier League players doing a podcast at the moment, but I think that’s only a matter of time.”

:: Ben Foster was speaking ahead of new content from CGK Studios, the content production company behind the Fozcast and The Cycling GK. Episodes are available weekly on Spotify and YouTube.