Throughout its illustrious 130-year history, West Ham United has been blessed with players who instantly identify themselves with the Club.
Vic Watson, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Trevor Brooking, Billy Bonds, Alvin Martin, Julian Dicks, Mark Noble – names that, when you hear or read them, you instantly think of the Hammers.
Listening to Jarrod Bowen speak ahead of the 2025/26 season, it is clear he would love nothing more but to add his name to that list – and in particular to follow Moore and Bonds by lifting the FA Cup for the Club he loves.
Embarking on his second season as West Ham captain, Bowen has been here for five-and-a-half years, wrote his name into Irons folklore by scoring the goal which won the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2023, won the Hammer of the Year award in 2024, and this summer married into arguably the most famous Claret and Blue family on the planet, the Dyers.
“This Club means everything to me,” he revealed. “I've been here for nearly six years now. I feel like I've grown as a person. I think my football has grown as well. We've enjoyed some really, really good moments together as well. So, I think West Ham for me is just everything I know.
“I think just the loyalty, the love that you get, even when things aren't going well, that makes it such a special Club. The fans stick with you every single moment. And I think, for me, that's one of the best things that we have. If you can go through those tough times together, when those good times come, which we've had, you appreciate them a lot more.
“Winning the European final over in Prague was obviously my favourite moment so far. I felt probably every single emotion that you could think of. Tears, tears of joy, happiness, a relief almost. The game went how it did [with us going 1-0 up, then Fiorentina equalising], and to score in the last minute, and then the final whistle blowing, that was a relieving moment.
“I think, like I said, when those good moments come, it's important that you stick together through the bad times as well because that moment that we had, I think you saw the celebrations on the pitch with the fans and when we held the parade, it was something really incredible.”
Put simply, Bowen is a fully fledged member of the West Ham family.
Speaking of families, Bowen is not just the proud husband of Dani, father of twin daughters Summer and Star and son-in-law of Danny, but also the proud son to Sam and Natalie and older brother to Harry and Ella.
After getting married at the end of May and going on honeymoon, he returned to his childhood home in Herefordshire to begin preparing for the new season alongside Sam – himself a prolific striker in non-league football with the likes of Merthyr Tydfil and Worcester City who even had a trial with Harry Redknapp’s West Ham at the turn of the century – his siblings and his new wife.
There, the quartet ran on the potato fields on the family farm owned by Sam’s brother – Jarrod’s uncle – to build his strength, endurance and agility ahead of returning to training at Rush Green at the start of July.
“This summer I didn’t get called-up by England, so I a had five or six-week period, so I went home for three weeks, and we were training on the famous potato fields every single day!” he smiled. “It's the first time that I've done it in probably a few years, because I had the Euros in 2024 and I made my [England] debut in the Nations League in 2023.
“This season I had my brother and sister doing it with me and even Dani came out a couple of times and did it! If you looked at it, you would have thought: ‘What the hell is going on with this group of people here?’, but luckily it's quite a quiet place where we are!
“My Dad was the instructor, so to speak, and it's like his boot camp, we called it. It was just us running around these potato fields and I thought: ‘If anyone sees us they're going to think, what is this? What is this group of four people doing?’, but we did it and it's something that I've done throughout my career, so I wanted to do it and we've done it.”
This Saturday, Bowen will put all those hard yards in the potato fields into action at the Stadium of Light, where he will lead his West Ham team – and family – into the new season.
Having scored two goals and assisted two more and looked razor-sharp in pre-season, he is fit and firing ahead of the Premier League opener at newly promoted Sunderland.
And he revealed his Dad will hit the road for a five-hour, 270-mile drive from the Bowen family home in Leominster to Wearside in his own unique style to cheer him on.
“He tries to come to as many games as he can, and he's already thinking about the Sunderland game and told me he’s going to drive his campervan up there!” Bowen explained. “The campervan went to the Euros in Germany last summer. There was him, my brother and my two best mates and they all had a go at driving it.
“He’s got that campervan for his little trips away, and he's going to drive up to Sunderland. He's already planned his route out and found a caravan park where he's going to park it and then come up to the ground!”
The 28-year-old is a true Hammers legend in his own lifetime, then, but the man himself says he still has so much more to achieve in a West Ham shirt, with one particular ambition at the very top of his list.
“I’ve got one thing that I’d love to do here at the Club and that is I’d love to win the FA Cup!” he smiled. “Growing up, watching football, it’s the most prestigious cup competition and there have been some brilliant stories through the years.
“To see Crystal Palace win it last year and what it means for them as a club and the fans, with the celebrations they had, I really enjoyed seeing it because it was a moment for them that they might not have expected to happen.
“So I think, obviously I’d love to win the Premier League and play in the Champions League, but something that I’d love to do this season is win the FA Cup!”
