Whether it be crossing themselves when they step out onto the pitch, celebrating by pointing skywards or revealing slogans in praise of the Lord, God is never too far from the thoughts of certain players.
Some go even further, as Planet Sport reveals.
Gavin Peacock
Peacock had an 18-year professional career with spells at Newcastle United, Chelsea and QPR before hanging up his boots in 2002.
He went on to be a pundit for BBC Sport among others, but in 2008 he left for Canada to study theology with a view to becoming a Christian minister.
Peacock said of his moment of revelation: “I was reading the Bible – as I had done for many years – when I sensed a burning inside, not just to read it but to teach it. There was a desire to do it. But also a compulsion. A joyful compulsion, I’d call it. There’s a great joy when I preach or when I lead in a church but I also feel like I must do it.”
Currently an associate pastor at Calvary Grace Church in Calgary, Peacock has co-authored four books on what the Bible teaches us about gender roles, lust, homosexuality and transgenderism. Not your everyday ghost-written footballer fayre.
Alisson Becker
The Brazilian is a devout Pentecostal Christian and has been coined as ‘The Holy…