Since an early age, Stoke City’s Nathan Lowe has placed a huge emphasis on education and personal development.
“I’ve always been very academic, and my parents have always wanted me to prioritise my education,” Lowe told LFE. “I can honestly say that football only became my main focus once I’d signed my scholarship and things took off quickly after that.”
After completing his LFE apprenticeship in the summer of 2024, Lowe found it difficult to replace the stimulation that came with studying and decided to throw himself into higher education, despite his responsibilities as a first team player. “I was sat around last summer bored, and I didn’t feel stimulated mentally. I don’t like being unproductive.
“I began doing some research on potentially starting a degree and spoke with someone at the PFA Business School. I’m now enrolled on a three-year course, and you get a Bachelor of Arts degree underwritten and accredited by Portsmouth University. It really interests me and I’m glad I decided to do it because it’s given me an outlook off the pitch and keeps me grounded.”
Lowe also admits that his off the pitch commitments have given him a different outlook towards his sporting career and identity. “It’s made me look at football differently. I look at it very much as a job and I don’t dwell on things as much. If I have a bad training session for example, I’ll go home and be able to switch off from that as I’ll have a lecture to do or an assignment due. It stops you from getting carried away. At the end of the day, I’m 19 years old and if I wasn’t a footballer I’d be at university.
“I don’t ever want to be identified as a footballer first. I’m a teenager who lives with his parents and that is exactly what I want to feel like. Make no bones about it I’m in a very high-pressure industry and the more pressure I can relieve through other things, the better. Football is so much more accepting of the fact players have different interests now away from the pitch. You don’t need to be this strong man that just lives and breathes the game and that’s all you do.
“It’s imperative to have something to take your mind off football, whether that be education, a new language, a different sport, anything. Football is my day job but it’s not the be all and end all. I feel better about myself having a back-up plan and knowing that if one day my football career seizes to exist, I’ll have something to fall back on. Even if I retire at 35 and enjoy a great career, I’m going to have to do something after.”
In addition to his academic endeavours, the Potters forward is a huge advocate of community work and goes the extra mile to ensure his contribution is as powerful as possible. Being recognised as Stoke City’s Club Community Champion in the 2023/24 season at the tender age of just 18-years-old is reflective of this.
“I like to help in the community. Each player is contracted to do their own bit, but I think last year I did far more than was expected of me. People within the Club know I’m willing to and want to help people in and around the area and further afield. It goes back to a question I ask myself ‘who do you want to be?’ and I want to be more than a footballer to people, I want to give back to the people in this city and those who pay to come and watch me.”
While Lowe’s continual development away from the grass is nothing short of commendable, it’s his performances on the pitch that have been turning heads over the past 12 months. Following a handful of cameos for Stoke during the second year of his apprenticeship in 2023/24, the Hertfordshire born talisman was loaned out to League Two outfit Walsall at the beginning of last season, finding the net 15 times in 22 league appearances during his stint in the West Midlands.
“It’s all credit to everyone at the club (Walsall). It’s such a well ran club and everyone is so together. Matt Saddler has done an amazing job at creating a team of players that just want to go out there and fight for each other. I felt really wanted and valued during my time there which to me was so important. It was my first loan move, and everyone made me feel at home straight away.
“I got into the team quickly and started scoring a few goals and that helped my confidence massively. I soon felt like I deserved to be there and began to really express myself.”
Despite having joined the Saddlers on an initial season-long loan, Lowe’s red-hot form during the opening months of the campaign sparked a mid-season recall by Stoke manager Mark Robins, with the England U19 international scoring just nine minutes into his Championship return. “I scored nine minutes into my return at West Brom, had a run of games and that gave me a feeling of becoming more of a peer to the senior players.
“I certainly came back with far more confidence; I felt in a different league psychologically. I almost viewed myself as a new signing for Stoke when I returned rather than an academy graduate who was lucky to be within the first team picture.”
Discussing the success of his loan move further, Lowe credited the EFL pyramid and detailed how it provided the platform for him to prove himself.
“The EFL pyramid is one of the best things about football in this country, it’s helped me massively. From my experience it’s hard to break through with no experience in the Championship, and that goes for any job in any line of work. You need that work experience to prove you can do something which allows people to trust you. I had to go and prove I could do it, albeit two divisions below but that was enough for me to come back here and believe I was good enough for this level.”
Lowe’s exploits with Walsall were recognised further at the EFL Awards in April, with the Stoke academy graduate being named EFL League Two Young Player of the Year. “I’m really happy with that. I was glad to come away with one of the two awards I was nominated for, a pretty good return I’d say! I’m grateful to whoever voted for me. I’m proud and my family is too, and that’s the main thing for me.”
Reflecting on his journey more in-depth and in-particular his time as an apprentice, Lowe affirmed an open mindset and a willingness to listen and learn were major factors in his transition from the academy to the first team.
“In the second year of my apprenticeship, I was with the first team for the whole season. It was exciting but difficult at the same time having to balance all the other stuff with it like my education and not being able to spend much time with my friends in the academy who I had come through with. It was tough, 17 years of age going into a men’s football environment, training with them pretty much every day.
“One of the biggest things for me was to not think I’d cracked it because I hadn’t. I went in with an open mind and a willingness to learn. I was never going to get everything right and was naturally going to make mistakes almost certainly more often than the senior players but that is to be expected.
“Another thing I told myself was that they have all been in my shoes and have been just as nervous as me. Back when I first broke through, I used to get nervous to train with the first team, but now it feels normal. I also made sure that no one could have a bad word to say about me when it came down to my attitude, that is one thing you can control.”
When asked about the main differences between academy and senior football, Lowe insisted pressure is what sets the two apart.
“The demands placed on you are so high. You make such a big impact on people’s lives. If you give the ball away in the Championship on a Saturday and the opposition, go down the other end and score thousands of people could go home less happy and that is pressure. However, I like to look at it a different way and think that when I get an opportunity, I have a chance to impact the game and the fans in a positive way.”