Meet the Liverpool footballer who has become a lockdown sensation 

Football’s answer to Joe Wicks has become a lockdown sensation with famous fans including Wayne Rooney and Jamie Carragher tuning in to his Instagram page for stay at home training sessions.

28-year-old Tom Owens from Netherley, who once played for Preston North End before heading to America and Canada to play for teams including Michigan Bucks and FC London, launched his private football training academy in 2018.

Based in Prescot, the popular football training school has been forced to close during the coronavirus lockdown, but it hasn’t stopped Tom taking his soccer skills workshops online to teach children from Merseyside with free weekly virtual classes.

Tom, who secured a master’s degree from Quincy University in Illinois whilst playing football in the States, is also offering mindset programmes to empower youngsters on reaching their potential in sports and education.

Tom’s Instagram live sessions have started to attract thousands of families during the lockdown. His followers have jumped by almost 10,000 since mid-March.

He is now being described as Merseyside’s answer to fitness expert Joe Wicks.

It was a huge blow to temporarily close down our training services in Prescot but we are fully committed to protecting our community, and helping the NHS save lives. We are using this time to look to the future and how we can bring more value to our audience through the creation of online training resources, something we are excited to release very soon.

We can’t wait to get back to our usual sessions, but in the meantime it is all about levelling up and challenging ourselves to take on new, exciting projects that will benefit many, as we hope our free live sessions have so far.