Royals

Prince William Shows Off in Competitive Side in a Game of Foosball — with Soccer Pros!

Prince William played some table soccer as he joined professional players to launch a new mental health campaign

Published on February 5, 2020 02:07 PM

Foosball, anyone?

Prince William left his palace home on Wednesday to join in a table soccer event in London. But unlike Joey and Chandler on Friends, his game had a serious message — he was taking part in the event to kick off the latest stage in his mental health campaign around the sport of soccer.

William joined players and managers from the men’s and women’s game at the table soccer tournament held in Paddington, West London. Also there were soccer fans from across the country who have supported well-being projects within their communities.

The 37-year-old prince was on hand to promote the fact that in a couple weeks, two Heads Up Weekends (part of William and Kate Middleton‘s mental health charity, Heads Up) will see football teams from all the leagues dedicate their matches to the organization to highlight the importance of talking about mental health.

Prince William — Frank Augstein/AP/Shutterstock

William, who is President of the Football Association and is a keen fan himself, said in a statement: “Imagine if we talked about mental health as much as we talk about football.”

“Many of us won’t go a day without talking about it. And whatever team we support, every single fan, player and manager has one thing in common — we all have mental health, in the same way that we all have physical health.”

The message, which will be in every program sold and distributed during the matches this weekend, adds, “And we will all face ups and downs in life, which will affect it. It’s time we start taking our mental fitness as seriously as we do our physical fitness, and that starts with talking.”

William played table soccer alongside Andros Townsend of Crystal Palace and Adebayo Akinfenwa of Wycombe Wanderers and Fran Kirby of Chelsea. He also chatted to John McGinn, who is a player from his own favorite team — Aston Villa.

At the end of the light-hearted tournament, William said, “It was highly competitive!” He thanked those present for helping “raise the profile” of mental health. “If we can use the power of sport, use the power of football, bringing people together to have a really big conversation on mental health then that can only help people who are still struggling, people who still feel they can’t talk about their mental health.”

He added that it was a “really big deal” to have two weekends dedicated to the campaign across the soccer community.

“Mental health is a positive subject. It is something we can all talk about, it is something we can get on board with. Personally for me, seeing, hearing some of you talk about your stories, your struggles, whether you’re a professional footballer, whether you’re a fan, whether you’re somebody who doesn’t necessarily like football that much . . . whatever background you come from, thank you for being a part of this and for wanting to make mental health a more open subject.”

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William has urged the FA and soccer clubs to take part in a season-long Heads Up campaign to harness the influence and popularity of the sport to normalize the conversation around mental health, working closely with charity partners Mind, CALM and Sporting Chance.

Last week, he visited Everton Football Club in Liverpool as part of the awareness-raising effort on the issue. There, current Everton star Dominic Calvert-Lewin told PEOPLE, “The subject can be a tough thing to talk about or it can be easy depending on the group of people that you’re in. He spoke on it very well and it allowed us to be able to open up a little bit about it.”

“There’s a stigma around mental health — as a man you’ve got to be macho and put it all to bed,” he added. “But the fact that if we can, as role models to people, start talking about it and opening up then hopefully that will help the people that we inspire to do so, as well.”

The Heads Up Weekends will take place on February 8-9 and February 15-16.