New FourFourTwo columnist and broadcaster Jules Breach has worked in football for a number of years now, presenting coverage of live games on BT Sport, Channel 4 and the Champions League on CBS Sports.
While she has since met and worked with a number of current and former professionals, the first she ever saw was Kevin Keegan during a chance encounter.
Indeed, Breach lived in Jamaica between the ages of eight and 15, and randomly bumped into Keegan on the Caribbean island during that time, as she recalls to FFT.
"When I was little in Jamaica, we went on holiday to a different part of the island and bumped into Kevin Keegan at the breakfast buffet," Breach describes. "My father is a huge football fan, so he went over to have a chat with him. It was very odd, seeing Kevin Keegan getting an omelette in Jamaica!"
Despite being a Brighton and Hove Albion fan, Breach grew up idolising Steven Gerrard. She got to meet, and work with, her childhood hero when she first started working for BT Sport's football coverage, with Gerrard already a pundit for the broadcaster's coverage.
Breach certainly didn't take it for granted, but tells FFT it is difficult to switch off from football even when she isn't directly working on matches.
"My favourite footballer as a kid was Steven Gerrard. When I first started working at BT Sport, he was part of our punditry team; I met him and remember saying to myself, ‘Oh wow, that’s Steven Gerrard’ – I was absolutely buzzing.
"Living in Jamaica, football was sitting on the sofa and watching it on TV with my dad, so I’m very fortunate now that I get to go to games pretty much every week. Working in football, it’s hard to go to matches and not think about them professionally.
"On a working day, I look at who’s starting; how many changes from the last game; who’s left out? Even when I go as a fan, it’s quite hard to switch off, but it’s a complete contrast from when I was a kid. It’s really special."
