Revealed: Why some of the country’s biggest ex-footballers are doing THIS gesture in photos flooding social media

February’s Heart Month is shining a spotlight on one of the UK’s biggest health challenges – heart and circulatory disease – with a major show of support from some of the country’s most recognisable former footballers.

Ex-players including Micah Richards, Jermain Defoe, Glenn Hoddle, ‘Big Sam’ Allardyce, Phil Jagielka, Fabrice Muamba, Bobby Zamora, Graeme Souness and Dion Dublin have all backed the British Heart Foundation’s ‘Every Minute Matters’ campaign, which highlights the life-saving importance of acting quickly when someone suffers a cardiac arrest.

The campaign is built around a simple but powerful message: when a cardiac arrest happens, the first few minutes are critical.

To help reinforce that message, the start of every single game across the Sky Bet EFL Championship, League One and League Two will be re-scheduled by one minute over the weekend of February 5–9, serving as a powerful reminder that when it comes to cardiac arrests, every minute really does matter.

To mark Heart Month, the above mentioned stars have flooded social media with images of themselves making the iconic heart-hands gesture to encourage supporters everywhere to ‘Show Your Heart’ and learn CPR using the BHF’s free online RevivR tool. 

Former Manchester City star and beloved pundit Richards – who is joining forces with cardiac arrest survivor and professional footballer Tom Lockyer – is urging fans to ‘Show Your Heart’ by learning CPR this Heart Month.

Graeme Souness is one of a number of ex-footballers who have shown their support for ‘Heart Month’

Dion Dublin making the iconic heart-hands gesture to encourage supporters everywhere to ‘Show Your Heart’ and learn CPR using the BHF’s free online RevivR tool

‘I’ve played in some nail biters, huge games, but Every Minute Matters is a brilliant partnership that is just bigger than football. Learning CPR takes just 15 minutes and it could save a life. It doesn’t get bigger than that,’ he said.

‘Listening to Tom (Lockyer) and seeing what he has achieved is inspirational. We’re asking fans to “Show Your Heart” this February and learn one of the most important skills of all, CPR. If football can do this, and create an army of half-a-million lifesavers, it would be an incredible achievement.’ 

Ahead of the 11 televised EFL games scheduled from February 5-9 – starting with the live game between Accrington Stanley and Salford City on Thursday February 5 – team captains will also make the iconic heart-hand gesture to inspire fans.

First launched at Wembley in May 2024, Every Minute Matters has already had a stadium-sized impact. The campaign set out to engage 270,000 people to start learning CPR using the BHF’s free RevivR tool by May 2025.

The current total sits at over 450,000 and this February the Every Minute Matters campaign is aiming to hit the incredible milestone of 500,000.

For those interested in getting involved, please visit https://revivr.bhf.org.uk/efl.