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Chris Kamara’s antics and his unusual way of speaking helped turn Soccer Saturday into a cult favourite when the programme first began.

There are very few catchphrases from football that are as instantly recognisable as ‘Unbelievable Jeff!’

The exclamation, made famous on Soccer Saturday by footballer-turned-pundit Chris Kamara, who was the show’s roaming reporter and became known for his comic outbursts, is now heard everywhere, from school playgrounds to factory floors.

Yet, like many catchphrases, Kamara did not even realise he had one until it began to take on a life of its own. In fact, one evening in December 2000, while watching television and with Soccer Saturday still in its early days, he discovered that he had been saying it all along.

“I turned on a Christmas TV bloopers show and saw my own smiling face,” Kamara tells FourFourTwo on behalf of Medichecks, which provides private blood tests and at-home health checks. “It was a montage from Soccer Saturday and it was just me, again and again, shouting, ‘Unbelievable Jeff!’ at different matches. I honestly had no idea I had been saying it, let alone so many times. It had not even crossed my mind.”

Kammy’s lively outbursts were only one part of a weekly football show that had become a cult hit. His catchphrase was among the funniest moments in a programme full of good-natured banter. People enjoyed it so much that it even earned a place in a university drinking game.

“I remember one day we received a letter at the studio from some students saying they had been playing a Soccer Saturday drinking game,” Kammy smiles. “They would all gather in the student union and had to drink every time something specific happened. They would drink when Jeff went on one of his rants or when one of the other pundits got a footballer’s name wrong. Whenever I said ‘Unbelieveable Jeff!’ they would all have to finish their pints.”

Kamara has joined health testing provider Medichecks for a major campaign urging men to stop ignoring symptoms and make their health a priority, after his own diagnosis with speech apraxia following a thyroid issue. Kamara believes his own condition, which affects the way his brain and mouth communicate and has caused slower, more slurred speech, might have been avoided if he had seen a doctor earlier.

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“Football fans can spend hours arguing about who should be in the starting eleven, whether the manager got it right or who is coming in during the transfer window, but when it comes to their own health, many blokes go completely silent,” he says.

The initiative included a “Well Man Arms” pop-up pub takeover at the Trent Navigation Inn, using football culture to confront the worrying statistic that nearly half of men put off seeking medical advice.

Supported by Medichecks’ research, which found that while 92 per cent of men urge their friends to see a doctor, 47 per cent delay getting help themselves, Kamara led the campaign to challenge the “tough it out” mindset among men. The push encouraged men to take practical action by using Medichecks to look for any underlying health problems.

“What stood out to me from the research is that almost every man would tell a mate to get checked if something did not seem right, but many will not follow their own advice,” says Kamara. “We are brilliant at looking after our mates, but not always so good at looking after ourselves. I know from my own experience how easy it is to brush things aside and think, ‘I’ll deal with it later’, but the problem is, later can sometimes be too late.

“If we can get even a few men to stop putting things off, book an appointment, get a health check or simply talk to someone about something that is worrying them, that is a win in my book.”

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