BBC England reporter Kelly Somers on World Cup, Watford and career

Kelly Somers does not usually take time to reflect on her career, but she admitted she had been thinking about her journey a little more after seeing herself in a picture alongside colleagues including Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer when the BBC announced its squad for the tournament that kicks off in Qatar on Sunday.

She told the Watford Observer: “You don’t get that much opportunity to look back. It’s always onto the next thing and there’s so much pressure in this industry to be chasing the next big gig, but seeing myself in the BBC announcement – I’m just behind Micah Richards, I’m next to Gary, Alan and Jermaine Jenas, that was probably the first time I’ve thought ‘maybe you should enjoy this moment’ and ‘this is okay!’

Kelly interviewing Gareth Southgate during the Nations League. (Image: Kelly Somers)

“As a kid I always loved football and I went to my first Watford game and my mum wasn’t sure whether I was going to like it, but it was the Play-Off Final and I was completely hooked.

“I’ve still got a season ticket in the Graham Taylor Stand, it’s dead opposite the press box and I used to sit and dream of one day sitting and working there.

“It’s really surreal. People ask did you dream of working at World Cup? No, I never ever thought of that. My aim was always ‘imagine if I could sit over there at Vicarage Road’. So to then be going to a World Cup…”

A sports presenter and reporter for several broadcasters, Kelly will again be the England reporter for BBC TV during the World Cup, a role she first performed at last summer’s European Championships and a relationship she was able to build on with Channel 4 during the Nations League which she is grateful for.

She said: “When you go into camp the players see you pretty much every day and then it really helped doing Channel 4 because otherwise I could have just disappeared, but I was back in with them in June and September. They’re all pretty personable lads. I’m not going to pretend I know them inside out and that we hang out, we don’t, but they’re always very polite.

“The FA have an incredible set up, they spread all of their media workload out, they encourage them to do it and they make the environment nice, so they’ve really tried to change the narrative around working with the media which is helpful.

“Covid has made it a little trickier because in Russia [at the 2018 World Cup], before I was England reporter when Gabby Logan was doing it, they were able to do slightly more fun stuff, whereas we were living in Covid rules last year – three metres, masks, testing every game.

“There’s still going to be some Covid rules in place this World Cup as well, but there’s a really good relationship in general between the media and England I’d say now.”

A view from behind the camera as Kelly interviews England captain Harry Kane. (Image: Kelly Somers)

Ever since the tiny desert state was awarded football’s global showpiece amid allegations of corruption and vote-swapping, this World Cup has been enveloped in controversy amid claims thousands may have died building the infrastructure for the tournament in a country which has been criticised for its human rights record and outlawing homosexuality.

Kelly has yet to experience what Qatar is like at first hand, but she is acutely aware the context in which this World Cup will be played is unlike any other.

She said: “I’m going out there for the BBC. I think the BBC have a track record for addressing and discussing everything, so going as part of an organisation that I know will report on everything is important and that makes me proud to be going with them.

“You’ve seen in the build up other things being reported but ultimately my role is to report on the England football team. I think one good thing is it’s shining a light on the country and maybe things that wouldn’t have come to light otherwise.”

Born in Watford General Hospital and a former pupil of Parmiter’s School, Kelly got to ‘sit over there at Vicarage Road’ sooner than she expected after winning a young writer’s competition in this newspaper when she was around eight years old. Her prize included spending a day in the press box with the Watford Observer’s former long-standing Hornets correspondent Oliver Phillips and she also won a Motorola flip phone.

“At the time my mum was ‘Urgh, I don’t want you to have a phone at this age’ but it was like a treat and I was allowed to use it every so often,” she smiled. “There was definitely something that went out in the paper because I can still see the picture of us sitting in that press box to this day and that was incredible.

“I remember in assembly at school it was read out about it. If I wasn’t hooked before I certainly was after then. That was when I was thought ‘this is amazing, the fact that I can actually go to Watford games, the place where I’d fallen in love with this a year or so before and get paid to go’. That just blew my mind that it was a job possibility and that was all I wanted to do.”

Kelly is also appreciative of what she learnt during the work experience she gained with this newspaper during school holidays and while she was at university at Loughborough.

She said: “There were loads of different disciplines I wouldn’t have been exposed too otherwise and also learning how the industry works. I think that’s something that’s quite under rated, the relationships, how to speak to people, how things are put together.

“I don’t work in newspapers but I think the skills I learnt and the understanding of the print industry was really useful as well.”

A relaxed moment in conversation with Jack Grealish. (Image: Kelly Somers)

Kelly had secured a place to study for a masters degree in broadcast journalism at Nottingham Trent University. It was also suggested she “might be a good fit” for a media assistant’s role at AFC Bournemouth having undertaken some unpaid work experience at Doncaster Rovers and Peterborough United. It was a job that changed her life.

She said: “They were in League One, they were having a really difficult time, they’d sacked their manager Paul Groves in the first week, and I thought ‘is that going to give me what I need to get to where I want to go to?’

“I’m probably the only Watford fan in the world that has such a soft spot for Bournemouth but had I never gone there I never would have been where I am today. I learnt so, so much.

“If anything it gave me the opportunity to rule out what I didn’t want to do – I always thought I wanted to be a written journalist, ‘actually I really enjoy the interviewing, actually I can do this in front of a camera’ and then I started to do presenting on screen.

“It was the best thing I ever did, but it was tough. Aged 21, I’d finished uni, all my friends were moving to London and I left Watford, packed a bag and went and lived in a house with three girls I’d never met. I was in a hotel for a month.”

Kelly spent just shy of four years at Bournemouth, before moving to Premier League Productions and then went freelance two years later having worked for other media and sporting outlets.

Enjoying a walk with Jude Bellingham. (Image: Kelly Somers)

The presenter of the BBC Women’s Football Show has also become a regular on our screens reporting and presenting for other football programmes including Football Focus and Final Score. But she is determined to remain a fan at heart – and has a way of making sure work does not conflict with that when she covers games at Vicarage Road.

She explained: “A lot of people have said to me ‘why have you never worked for Watford? You must want to work for Watford? Isn’t that your dream job?’ Watford for me is my biggest hobby, my biggest passion outside of work and I never want that to change.

“I think sometimes when you work for football clubs you’re involved in conversations and I just want to be the fan that’s cheering. I do value being a fan. Ultimately I do this job because first and foremost I am a football fan and I never, ever want that to change.

“When I work at Watford games I switch off from being a Watford fan completely. They’re just two teams.

“It sounds really silly but because I’ve never sat in that stand as a fan that is just work, whereas when I go with mum I go and sit in our season ticket seats I associate that with something completely different. I make sure I compartmentalise it.”

Kelly’s journey to the World Cup is one plenty of aspiring young journalists dream of emulating. Her over-riding message to them is simple.

“Don’t lose the love for it,” she said. “There’s a lot of people that want to work in football and I think you can tell the people who aren’t football fans, particularly in this industry.

“Education is so important but also supplement that with work experience. That not only teaches you the skills you need but contacts, meeting people, learning how to speak to people in the industry, learning how the industry works.

“It’s tough and not everyone can afford to work for free and I was so fortunate that my mum has always supported me massively and financed everything that I’ve done really. I always had a part-time job but if I couldn’t afford the petrol to drive to Peterborough mum would fill my car up.

“Also showcase what you can do. There’s so many people that want to do it and so many people like you - do a blog, do a YouTube channel, do a podcast. I think it’s such an incredible industry but the more you see of it the better equipped you’ll be.”