Team-building events keep footballers on their game.

Professional footballers are increasingly being encouraged to bond off the pitch through the organisation of team-building events to bring young stars closer together as a unit.

Team building events can be as simple as going fishing or playing a round of golf with a colleague; they don’t have to be extreme sports like snowboarding or paintball, which is good news because none of the premiership’s young guns want to be struck down with an injury.

 Liverpool duo Steven Gerrard  and Fernando Torres are known to enjoy a game of golf and have formed a blistering partnership for their club.

The Arsenal squad has been known to meet for team building events including a bowling night, to forge greater cohesion.

Other big names like Manchester United player Michael Owen and the club’s manager Sir. Alex Ferguson each own race horses and are particularly keen on this mutual interest, which helps galvanise the relationship between the two men and assist in  team building.

During the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa several national football teams were pictured in newspapers on safari – a classic team-building event, which throws colleagues together and then puts them face to face with wild animals.

Team-building expert P.J. Stevens, who runs Leap PLC and has worked with footballers and Olympians said: “Nowadays because of the great strides made in social science we are much more aware of the potential benefits of team building events, so are perhaps more inclined to organise them proactively.

“However, team-building  events like fishing trips or rounds of golf with colleagues have been around for many years and in the past employers would have gained the benefit of a team-building event passively, not realising that employees were actually bonding through shared leisure activities.” He added.

Check out Team Building Events at Leap Performance and Life Coaching