An Unflinchingly Honest Look Into The Brutal World of Football: Dropped Review

★★★★★

A thirty-minute play written and performed by former Chelsea FC trainee Alfie Cain, Dropped exposes the harsh realities of the football world. When Joe, who is in his mid-twenties, is sent off the pitch after arguing with a player who aggressively tackled him, he begins to reflect on his journey, and question if he wants to continue as a footballer.

Cain is a fantastic actor, and shows so many emotions throughout the play. He enters by storming onto the stage, shouting and screaming about the injustice that has just happened. These bursts of anger are displayed repeatedly during the show and for good reason. He feels as if he’s been let down by the adults and promised a dream that is virtually impossible to achieve: 17,000 kids enter into training academies every year, but only two will have a professional career. He wonders why no one told him about these odds, and questions if he would have chosen to pursue football if he’d known.

While nine-year-old Joe finds football—and the attention he gets from being a good player—fun, this quickly wears off and he realises how political the sport is. His first experience of this is at fourteen, when he is cut from a team in favour of the coach’s son, who isn’t as good a player. The pressure becomes too much and it takes a huge toll on his body: he is sick before games and constantly worrying that he will be cut. As a teen, he takes strong painkillers and straps up his ankle heavily so he can still play. By the time he is 23, he has back issues similar to those of a man in his fifties.

Being sent off the pitch clearly is the straw that broke the camel’s back and Joe is determined he will quit football. But when his dad phones, he can’t find the words to tell him. His dad has always supported his football career, sacrificing lots so that Joe can achieve his dream. Unfortunately not all of his teammates had the same experience; Joe trained with a boy who was thrown off the team due to his dad’s abusive manner. However, there are some things Joe cannot discuss with his dad, such as the coach who put his arm around him and left it there for a little too long, or the way the coaches would make him feel special when he was at his most vulnerable. He tells us about a coach who accosted him in the clubhouse one evening, asking why he’s happy to get changed in front of his teammates but not him, pretending to be a defender and forcing him to practice backing into him. Abuse like this is happening in different sports across the world, but it is rarely discussed within a football context. It is very commendable that Cain includes such important topics in Dropped.

The show is a little bit out from the main Fringe venues, but it’s a nice change from the usual hustle and bustle of the centre. Easter Road stadium, home to Hibs FC, is a very fitting venue, giving Cain the opportunity to stir up some friendly club rivalry: his old football coach was a weirdo, so obviously he must have been a Hearts fan. Overall, Dropped is a hard-hitting and eye-opening performance that should definitely be on your watchlist, regardless of if you’re a football fan or not.

Dropped will be performed Behind The Goals at Easter Road Stadium until 9 August as part of Edinburgh Fringe.

Words by Ellen Leslie

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