Meet Vinay Menon – Premier League’s first “Wellness” coach

An Indian working at the top end of English football is a very rare occurance. But, Vinay Menon has been there. The Premier League’s first wellness coach was a personal appointment by former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and he trailblazed a path that hadn’t been trodden much at that time.

Born with a culture of yoga in his family in Kerela, Menon pursued wellness as a career. He was delivering wellness, yoga and relaxation exercises to billionaires and celebrities at a luxury hotel in Dubai, when the father of Abramovich’s then-wife Dasha booked in for a session and then recommended him to the Russian oligarch. Menon then shifted to London to serve the family personally. Abramovich then took him to Chelsea.

Menon at the point had never been exposed to football, in fact he hadn’t even watched a football match in his life.

His immediate challenge was to improve things in a squad who had finished as either Premier League champions or runners-up in the previous five seasons.

Some of the players took very well to his methods. He mentions Didier Drogba in particular, followed by the likes of Joe Cole, Frank Lampard and John Terry.

Menon’s sessions involved meditation, sharpening players’ mental approach and dispelling the negative thoughts as a top level professional footballer.

“I was a person without a title, teaching the players self-care and how to balance, spiritually, emotionally, and ultimately impact them physically,” Menon told the BBC. “They are human beings and need a friend to giggle with, babble to and then they will open up. You need to be happy in the mind in sports and business. It’s the same – the mind is everything.”

He worked for 13 years with Chelsea under various managers before being let go when Todd Boehly took over ownership from Abramovich. He still is a Chelsea fan and has also worked with Belgium in the 2022 World Cup. He hopes that the Indian football team will reach that stage too, one day.