Goalkeeping father and son become global social media stars after boy's last-minute save
A father and son have followed in the footsteps of Stourbridge superstar Jude Bellingham and become social media stars after videos of them playing football went global.
Dean Russell was about to hang his goalkeeping gloves up when his seven-year-old son Ollie wanted to start playing. So the pair uploaded videos of their training sessions on TikTok and they have now had hundreds of millions of views.
Clips of the high flying pint-size keeper saves began being shared on social media and now Ollie has even met his goalkeeping hero, Arsenal's Aaron Ramsdale, who messaged him after seeing the video.
Dean, who played semi-professionally for Dover Athletic, was shocked how popular the videos became so quickly, despite most being filmed in his garden between Kinver and Stourbridge.
He said: "We are just a father and a son who are trying to document the progress he will make over the years online. However, now it feels like half the world knows about Ollie and his goalkeeping.
"We had 44 followers before we uploaded a video of a brilliant save at the end of the match, by the time I'd got home it must have been shared and it had 100,000 views, it was mad. I was glued on my phone, just trying to reply to messages, I had to put it down and get some sleep, by the morning it was over a million on TikTok.
"All the blue ticks, verified accounts, began appearing in my DMs, ESPN, and all types of media outlets and football people who were asking for interviews and to share the video on their own sites."
The duo's TikTok account, Ollie Russell GK and dad, has over 200,000 subscribers and more than eight million likes, his Instagram has more than 60,000 followers and their YouTube channel Father and Son Goalkeeping also has 60,000 subscribers. The pair also host a podcast as well as being regular guests on other shows.
