When Eni Aluko, midway through her heated on-air row with Simon Jordan last week, defiantly insisted she had stepped away from the ‘toxic’ spotlight of sports punditry, it felt less like an exit and more like an escalation.
‘The reason people aren’t booking me is because I’ve taken myself out the firing line,’ she told him. ‘I think in the UK, it’s a very toxic space for me. And I’m fighting now just to even have an opinion.’
The issue with her statement, Aluko’s critics would argue, is that the retreat has hardly looked like one.
In recent weeks, the former Lioness has sparred publicly with Ian Wright, made incendiary remarks on podcasts about the state of women’s football punditry and continued to operate within the very industry she deems toxic. Her decision to trade blows with talkSPORT host Jordan, in a debate which was destined to go viral, only threw her more prominently into the headlines.
A less cynical view perhaps would be that Aluko, who has indeed endured years of abhorrent abuse online, is struggling to escape the spotlight quietly. It is not in her nature to back down from an argument and by constantly and sometimes admirably backing herself to the hilt, she has continued to fan the flames.
While the 38‑year‑old pundit lives under the burning scrutiny of football media’s spotlight, her younger brother has quietly carved out his own successful post‑playing career away from the glare.
Eni Aluko and her younger brother Sone have carved out vastly different careers after football
Former Lioness Eni Aluko clashed with Simon Jordan on talkSPORT last week as she addressed her public spat with Ian Wright – and claimed she has taken a step back from punditry
She has made incendiary remarks on podcasts about the state of women’s football punditry in recent weeks and continued to operate within the very industry she deems toxic
Sone Aluko is now working as a first-team coach at Ipswich Town, where he retired in 2024
Ex-Premier League forward Sone Aluko, 36, seems to have mastered the art of staying out of the fray and keeping a low profile. Now a coach at Ipswich Town under Kieran McKenna, Sone is playing a key role behind the scenes while the Championship club fights for Premier League promotion.
Focused on football first, the ex-Hull, Fulham, Reading and Rangers star keeps his personal life extremely private, sharing little to nothing with the world on social media.
His X account perfectly reflects his discretion. Despite boasting over 55,000 followers including the likes of Harry Maguire, Micah Richards and Odion Ighalo, Sone’s profile picture is blank and he has not posted in over 14 years.
He is similarly reserved on Instagram, where his 20,000 followers have seen just three posts – two featuring career highlights and another expressing how ‘truly humbled’ he felt by McKenna’s words at the club’s 2024 End of Season Dinner following his retirement.
‘Look, this is something I’m really keen to get on this stage for,’ McKenna says in the video. ‘It’s a special moment for me. Coaching Sone and getting to know him over the last couple of years has been one of the honours of my career. A fantastic footballer, anyone who has seen him grace Portman Road would attest to that.’
In contrast, Eni’s Instagram presence strikes a very different tone. With more than 130,000 followers, her profile is active, curated and unapologetically front-facing.
Eni’s first pinned post shows her modelling jewellery, accompanied by the caption: ‘A piece of gold that shines must first pass through fire.’ The message feels emblematic of her public persona – resilient, defiant and willing to endure scrutiny in pursuit of visibility.
Where Sone’s social media is defined by absence, Eni’s projects presence. It suggests not a retreat from the spotlight, but an acceptance – even an embrace – of the heat that comes with it.
Valuing discretion, Sone’s X profile picture is blank and he has not posted in over 14 years
Meanwhile on Instagram, he has only posted three times – with one post expressing how ‘truly humbled’ he felt by Kieran McKenna’s words after he bowed out of playing football in 2024
By comparison, Eni’s Instagram profile is active, curated and unapologetically front-facing
When confirming his retirement in 2024, Ipswich praised Sone for ‘setting the standard’ in training, underlining the quiet but influential role he plays in raising standards behind the scenes.
The Tractor Boys wasted little time in offering him a first-team coaching role later that summer, a move that reflected the work he had already put in behind the scenes while completing his coaching badges during his final seasons as a player.
‘We’re delighted to add Sone to our coaching team,’ McKenna said. ‘His work ethic and values have been important for the club over the last few years, and we know he will continue to bring those qualities to his new role.
‘Sone has strong relationships with players and staff at the club and he will be a big addition for us.’
Long before hanging up his boots, he had begun laying the groundwork for life beyond his playing career, taking an active interest in the analytical side of the game.
During his final season, Sone was often stationed alongside Ipswich’s analysts on matchdays, studying patterns of play and feeding tactical observations back to McKenna and his staff.
The forward, who chalked up seven senior caps for Nigeria after representing England at youth level, preferred to analyse the game away from the hustle and bustle of the dugout, opting to watch matches quietly from a high vantage point just in front of the press box at Portman Road.
‘It’s something I’ve naturally been doing before, but I prefer the view up there,’ he revealed to East Anglian Daily Times in 2024.
Sone pictured in 2016 while playing for Hull City against Premier League opposition Arsenal
The 36-year-old (bottom right) continues to be a key part of McKenna’s coaching set-up
‘At half time, if I go back into the dressing room, a lot of the players – especially the attacking players – will ask me how I’m viewing the game, what changes I think they could make, what adjustments they could make.
‘For me, it made sense to go a bit higher and be a bit further away from the game. You can see it tactically a bit better.
‘That was a change. The analysts said “you might as well come watch it with us”, and the manager started asking “What do you think? How do you see it?”.
‘It just became a natural progression, really, it was something that just happened organically, I’d say. The analysts are doing their stuff. They’re on their iPads, their laptops. They’re coding the games, the set pieces, all that stuff.
‘That’s really how it is. It’s not an official role they want me to do, it’s just how it’s organically happened.’
Now, with Ipswich third in the Championship just five points behind the automatic promotion places with a game in hand, Sone will hope to once again catapult the club to the Premier League at the end of the season.
No longer watching games from the canopy of Portman Road, the 36-year-old has a more hands-on role alongside McKenna nowadays, with Charlie Turnbull and former Bournemouth midfielder Junior Stanislas Ipswich’s other two first-team coaches.
If Ipswich do end up winning promotion, Sone Aluko will have played a major part – just don’t expect to see him in the headlines.