by Nia Griffiths

Trophies breed more trophies – fact or fiction?

Aaron Ramsey was just the latest footballer to reference a ‘hunger’ for winning after picking up our first trophy in nine years last season. Speaking days before the final, he said, “All the lads are even more hungry to win something this time around. We want the feeling that we had last year and we want to go on and win more things.”

Earlier this month, Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho also referred to wanting this same mentality from his team, saying, “When the big players have a taste of success, they want more and more.”

Want I want to explore in my column this week is whether this theory, that winning has a knock-on effect and ultimately spawns more wins, legitimate? Is it just football talk or are there actual psychological and even physical reasons why this could happen?

The science bit

Let’s break it down.

In its most simple form, winning or success, can cause your body to go through several processes involving:

  • Dopamine
  • Endorphins
  • Adrenaline

Dopamine is a type of hormone known as a neurotransmitter and is found in several areas of the brain. It’s essentially released when we are successful or pleased with ourselves. It’s heavily linked to pleasure and feeling rewarded, so food, sex and success can all cause our brains to become flooded with this hormone. Therefore, winning is almost certainly going to trigger this.

Endorphins are also neurotransmitter and are often released when we feel stressed. Stress doesn’t necessarily have to be a negative thing, for example, big presentations at work, job interviews or even rollercoasters can be stressful in their own way. Appearing in the final of a huge sporting event is bound to result in a certain level of stress, thus endorphins being released. The release of the hormone then causes a feeling of extreme euphoria, similar to the feeling opiates produce.

I’m pretty sure we’ve all experienced an adrenaline rush before – in fact, we probably all experienced one on Saturday. When our body enters its ‘fight or flight’ response, usually due to a ‘stressful’ situation, similar to endorphins, adrenaline is released. It’s a form of self-preservation – you can either stay and fight your attacker or have the energy to run away. You’ll experience quickened breathing and what people often describe as extreme butterflies in their stomach; a sort of fluttering, strange feeling.

What’s more is that dopamine and endorphins often trigger the release of adrenaline, leading to our winning footballers on Saturday feeling a pretty dizzying mixture of excitement, euphoria and pride. Somewhat similar to the Class A drug MDMA or ecstasy.

If the feeling of winning a trophy is comparable to mood enhancing drugs, surely it stands to reason that this feeling could become addictive.

Well, not quite.

Addiction: artificial happiness

You have to remember that although what the players may be feeling is similar to what someone popping an ecstasy pill may feel, they haven’t actually taken anything. The rush they’re feeling is a completely natural process for their bodies to be carrying out and most humans – especially people as physically fit as footballers – are more than robust enough to deal with the effects.

Although it’s a heady concoction of hormones and it can be temporarily intoxicating – this is apparently not addictive.

Therefore, rather than comparing the feeling of winning a trophy to drugs and considering it could be addictive that way, it’s actually far more useful to compare it to gambling.

Most gambling addicts will tell you that it’s all about winning; chasing the next victory. Success.

However, neuroscientists have found the addiction is far more deep-rooted in anxiety and wanting that rewarded feeling that the release of dopamine allows. Rather than the high, which many people would relate to addiction, it’s about the reward.

Therefore, if footballers were to become addicted to winning, it’d be the feeling of self-satisfaction afterwards, rather than the immediate high, which from a personal point of view is really interesting.

Is consistently winning addiction?

Looking at it logically, if we’re going to carry on comparing addiction to winning trophies to addiction to gambling, we have to look at the frequency the footballers are exposed to this or allowed to chase it. All joking aside, we’ve won two trophies in two years. Although from a football club’s perspective this is just lovely, from an addiction perspective this is small change. To become addicted to something, it’s likely that you will have to partake in it regularly. Our footballers simply aren’t getting their ‘fix’ enough to become addicted. However, wanting to experience a pleasurable feeling again is obviously desirable.

Having a thirst for trophies isn’t addiction, it’s being competitive – something all footballers should be to a certain degree.

Instead, although the feeling of lifting a trophy at Wembley must be unreal, I think consistently winning isn’t necessarily about chasing the high, it’s about being more equipped to deal with the stress. It’s finding your fight rather than your flight, harnessing that stress and channeling the adrenaline, knowing that your payoff is going to leave you grinning for days afterwards.

It’s knowing that playing in a final and winning trophies is a big deal but without letting the occasion get to you or hinder your success. Experience becomes key and winning becomes habit.

That experience, performing on the big stage for a second time in a row, is what we can take into next season. Not an addiction just raw determination and competitiveness.