“90 minutes just isn’t enough”: Arsenal’s Lotte Wubben-Moy on creative directing her contract renewal announcement

As contract renewals in football go, they don’t tend to be the most engaging or creative content. You can typically expect an Instagram grid picture of the player signing a piece of paper, or, if you’re lucky, you might be treated to a short interview, with some even going entirely under the radar. While a big song and dance is often made of first-time contract signings (which can sometimes get a little out of hand) renewals are much less celebrated. But with something so momentous – a player dedicating three to five more years of their career to their chosen club – it feels deserving of more fanfare.

This is something that the defender Lotte Wubben-Moy recently set herself on when re-signing her contract with Arsenal, the club she’s been a part of since she was 13. And rather than just standing in front of the camera, she decided to get behind it too, taking on the role of creative director. “The vision was to create something that was raw, something that fans hadn’t seen before in an announcement video,” says Lotte, “something that was stimulating and that actually allowed a clearer bridge between the player and the club and the fans.”

This focus on the fans colours the whole video. Rather than solely spotlighting Lotte, the attention is turned to the thousands of people who make the club what it is. “We have such an amazing fan base, and that’s why there is this conversation between players and fans, and that’s something that I want to elevate even more,” she says. The voiceover throughout the video is a spoken-word manifesto from Lotte that speaks directly to the fans, reaffirming her dedication to them, and the club.

Early into the short, she says: “I see you on the corner, cannon on your heart”, while making the cannon symbol where the football badge would sit, a British Sign Language sign that was taught to Lotte by Izzy Trimble, a young Arsenal fan who she’s forged a connection with in recent years. “I do it as a celebration now,” says Lotte. “It just runs so deep, I could probably go on forever about it.” Even the aesthetic choices in the video reference the fans. Footage of Lotte mid-game is interspersed throughout the video, but rather than opting for the crisp definition of a high-end camera, the grain and stutter of the film feels much more like a camera phone or a camcorder held by someone in the crowd.

The video is also a love letter to London. More specifically, the streets of London that Lotte and her fellow Arsenal fans walk. Growing up in East and North East London, Lotte says that “anytime I walk down the street, I see Arsenal fans, Arsenal kit, people with scarves, flags on their cars, stickers.” Throughout the video, you’re taken on a journey from Hackney Marshes, to Highbury Corner and Upper Street, all bathed in the warm glow of a sunny spring day in London. With the level of production and care and attention that’s gone into it, it feels disingenuous to call it a ‘video’, it’s much more a short film.

Alongside an already pretty rammed schedule as a professional footballer, why did Lotte want to get involved in the project? It was the chance to try something new and set her own rules, she tells It’s Nice That. “In football and working in a big group with a big team, there’s so much that is chosen for you,” she says. “You have a schedule, you have to be in this place at this time. It felt like this was a perfect opportunity to have creative control.” This desire to try something new is something that’s always been reinforced by Arsenal; “the support that the club has given me has been liberating and empowering,” Lotte adds.

The contract renewal also coincided with Lotte’s injury – she’s been out of the game for pretty much all of 2025. This, Lotte says, was something of a “silver lining”, as it resulted in her having more time to give to the renewal video. This sentiment is a clear sign of the positivity Lotte approaches everything with. But, don’t be mistaken, being injured doesn’t actually mean you have more hours in the day. “It's funny, when you’re injured, I would say you have more time, but you actually don’t,” says Lotte.

In fact, her days at Sobha Realty Training Centre, Arsenal’s training ground, have been longer: “But I think it’s maybe given me a different perspective, and that’s always welcome,” she says. Lotte has always seen creativity and football as intertwined, and so, a period off the pitch has allowed her to adopt a more creative mindset on the game – “I’ve seen myself take a step back and actually be able to give more to the team, because I’m able to have an unbiased view on things” – it’s also facilitated a new creative perspective and more “free-flowing” mindset for the announcement video.

This isn’t to say that the project didn’t prove a challenge. While Lotte has a long history with creativity, growing up in an artistic family, regularly drawing and setting up the colouring books to coincide with big tournaments (more of which you can read about here in our 2023 interview with the footballer) creative direction was an entirely new realm. “It was very difficult and challenging,” Lotte says, with working to a tight deadline being “really quite stressful”.

But, as on the pitch, teamwork was what really made it all come together. For the shoot, Lotte collaborated with a team she personally curated, with Izzy Trimble as consultant, Oliver James Newman as DoP, Highbury local Peter Joseph Smith on direction and photography and SJ Todd – a long term friend, women’s football fan and founder of SJT Studio – came in as art director. “In the creative world, there’s so much that goes on and so many ideas before you see the final piece,” says Lotte. “But it’s not just about the final piece, it’s about the process and everything that’s gone into it.” She found comfort in bouncing ideas off SJ, but also feeling confident to “step back and let go”, leaving people to do what they’re best at.

The creative connections and collaborations that lie beneath the project go back even further – way back into childhood. Together with her sister (who still remains a close collaborator) the pair used to listen to The XX, even putting on a performance at a family event once with her sister singing and Lotte on guitar – “I wouldn’t want to watch that back,” Lotte says with a laugh. The song played over the top of the video is Jamie XX’s track All Under One Roof Raving, a song that doesn’t only post a lovely full-circle moment, but for Lotte also represents the energy and atmosphere of watching a game at the Emirates.

Lotte’s face isn’t the only one you see in the film, two young girls also make an appearance. They’re all past members of her initiative, Lots to Explore (previously called Time to Explore) a community programme set up by Lotte following her last contract signing that gives 16-year-old girls from the Camden, Hackney and Islington area a chance to engage with sport and creativity at the Arsenal Hub, playing football, sewing and making pottery, among many other things. Lots to Explore is part of Arsenal’s community department – Arsenal in the Community – an organisation that aims to positively impact the lives of young people in the club’s local area. Marking 40 years in 2025, the organisation has been key in supporting the women’s game; in 1987 it offered girls-only football session at their indoor pitch, a rarity at the time and a nice parallel to Lotte’s work today. These initiatives echo one of the key sentiments of the announcement film: ‘Sometimes 90 seconds just isn’t enough’.

When asked about the project, Lotte’s enthusiasm is clear: “I’ve got a big smile on my face because there are just so many good moments,” she says. Attending sessions over the weeks, she’s able to see girls who may have had no initial interest in football or the arts, “open their hearts and minds to it”. Now, the programme has been extended from eight weeks to ten, and has a summer programme in the works, with around 80 young girls having made their way through in the past three years. Its initiatives like these, and the brilliant announcement video, that are only further proof of Lotte’s dedication to football, the arts, her local community and Arsenal. She doesn’t only love her fans, she too is a fan.