🕰️Footballers retirement plans & why they choose to stay in the game

What Do Footballers Do When They Retire?

It’s no secret that the levels of money in the modern game are obscene when you’re looking at the top-flight of football. Yet what happens to footballers when they decide to hang up their boots? Is it as simple as living of their fortune for the rest of their lives? Or is there more to it than that, with numerous avenues open to talented sports people with experience at the very top of the game?

Also, is there a common time when footballers decide to call it a day? Is it one size fits all, or is there some variation to the time limits imposed on a player’s career? We make no outrageous promises, but hopefully we’ll make efforts to answer these questions.

When Do Footballers Retire

There are two main reasons why footballers decide to call it a day: Injury and old age. Obviously there is no telling when the first one may strike. Football is, after all, a physical game and though few players ever set out to deliberately injure someone on the field of play accidents can most certainly happen.

Should a player pick up an injury that ends their career then the decision of when to walk away from the game is taken out of their hands by fate. Sometimes this can be an immediate thing that happens because of a bad tackle or some other issue on the field, whilst other times it can be a gradual wearing down of the player’s physical attributes that got them to the top of the game in the first place.

When it comes to age, this is another factor that varies from player to player. Goalkeepers typically last longer than outfield players because the pressure on them to keep fit enough to run around for ninety minutes is clearly less than their teammates. In fact, the age for players to consider retirement gets younger as you move through the field.

Defenders don’t need to be as fit as midfielders who often need to be the fittest - and therefore the youngest - on the field of play. Attackers can get away with being a little bit slower and older if they’ve got a good eye for goal and are a natural finisher. Whilst midfielders need to move from one box to the other with reasonable rapidity, both strikers and defenders can read the game and react accordingly.

Players normally sign their first professional contract at seventeen and the average length of a football career is eight years. The average retirement age of a football player is 35-years-old. Taking 35 as a rough age and working backwards and forwards from that depending on the position the player plays in and the level they play to is, therefore, a good starting block.

Careers and Jobs Following Retirement

For this we’re mainly looking at the upper echelons of football. This isn’t due to snobbishness but rather because players in the lower leagues tend not to be paid enough for football to be their sole job, meaning that they have other careers that they do alongside football that they turn to when their playing days are over.

For players in the top-flights it isn’t quite so simple to turn to something that they did when they were younger, so their options are a bit more limited if they aren’t content with merely living off their pre-earned riches. Here are some of the typical choices that players make:

MANAGER / COACH

It’s an obvious one, but very few managers haven’t had at least some experience at the top-end of the game. Players often find it very difficult to walk away from football altogether, so it’s no surprise that they instead turn to being the people in charge of the team rather than just a member of it.

It’s getting more and more unusual for players to go straight from being in the team to being its manager, of course, so they need to prove themselves and work their way up the ladder by starting life off as a coach. This could be in the form of an assistant manager or being in charge of the youth team, but players often cut their teeth in less important roles in clubs before being given the chance to sit in the hot-seat.

ANOTHER CLUB BASED ROLE

Not all players believe that they’re cut out to be managers or even coaches, but they still want to keep a hand in the daily running of the club where they made their name. Nowadays plenty of clubs use ex-players in ambassadorial roles, sending them to meetings with UEFA, FIFA and other representative organisations for things like cup draws or executive meetings.

Another club-based role that some players turn to is that of scout. They may not believe that they can coach a player but they may feel that they have the ability to spot a good one and draw the manager’s attention to them. Scouts often have specialised areas of interest, perhaps from their days playing in Spain, France or South America.

FOOTBALL PUNDIT

When it comes to football those that can, do and those that can’t, criticise. Alongside joining the coaching staff becoming a pundit is perhaps the most common route that ex-players head down. It’s virtually impossible to turn on a football-based programme without seeing a former player offering their opinion of the game at hand.

Gary Neville of Manchester United, Jamie Carragher of Liverpool and Thierry Henry of Arsenal are all examples of former players who have, to a greater or lesser degree, made a success of becoming a television or radio pundit in the days since their retirement from football.

It’s not just the main sports channels that need former players to offer their opinions, either. Nowadays the proliferation of a club’s own media means that ex-players can talk on the radio, write for the website or present on the television owned and operated by the club they used to ply their trade for.

FOOTBALL JOURNALIST

The final example of a job that a former player might take on is not dissimilar to the previous one. Plenty of newspapers make use of ex-professionals to fill their column inches or, as is becoming more popular in the days of online content, earn them clicks. New media is all the rage and the opinion of someone who used to be in the pay of a club - especially if it’s a controversial one - can make the difference between getting readers and going bust.

Why do so many former players stay in the game?

It is commonly accepted that a footballer’s personal life suffers greatly when they retire. Yet studies have shown levels of anxiety and depression in ex-professionals are comparable with the general public.

Still, there seems to be an unwillingness for players to leave the safety net of the footballing world once they retire. Quite often they don’t really undergo an exit from the game, but rather they stay attached in some way. For instance, they become a coach or a pundit.

But why is this?

Rob Moore is an agent who has looked after the likes of Benni McCarthy and Steven Pienaar throughout their careers. Both players have stayed in football after hanging up their boots.

“It is the exception, rather than the rule, that a player would have an outside interest that is so profound he then wants to think of a career in that field,” Moore explained to the Sports Gazette.

peaking at the 2020 London Football Awards, a number of former players stated they were content in retirement, but all had still remained within the world of football.

Ex-Arsenal forward Alan Smith reflected positively on his own retirement: “I don’t miss it really, no. I’m pleased to be what I’m doing now. I had a great career.”

But, like many others, he was grateful that his new career (as a commentator) had kept him close to the game: “It’s just lovely to be within that atmosphere,” he told the Sports Gazette.

Marlon Harewood echoed Smith’s sentiments at the same event, saying: “I don’t miss it really because I have a business I look after but I’m also in it [football] at the same time.”

Despite having an outside interest, it seems football still sits firmly on Harewood’s horizon: “At this moment in time I’m just doing it [coaching] part-time to keep my badges going. At a later on time I will take it seriously and try get as far as I can,” he said.

Carlton Cole, now the under-16 coach at his former club West Ham, had similar thoughts: “I would obviously like a job in the game eventually,” he said, referencing a more senior management position.

Cole also spoke about how he feels like he hasn’t really left the game, despite playing his last professional match in 2017.

“For me, I’m not retired. In my head I’m still a footballer. That’s part of my problem, not transitioning properly. To be honest, because I am still in football, I wake up every day like a footballer. I go and coach, then I come back home. It’s the same routine,” he told the Sports Gazette.

Incidentally, Cole was fined by the FA in 2015 for swearing at a fan on Twitter who had told him to “call it a day” on his career. It seemed he was not so keen on leaving football back then either.

He was then declared bankrupt in early 2018 before returning to football as a coach at West Ham later that year. For better or for worse, it does seem that most footballers are unwilling and hesitant to leave the game. It is an understandable way of safeguarding their futures.

In Cole’s time away from the game, he lost a significant amount of money. This is a trend in some footballers but shouldn’t be presented as the standard. But maybe more could be done to prepare players for later life, so that they can enjoy living without football.

Sam Saunders spent the best part of his career at Brentford, helping the London club gain promotion to the Championship during his seven-and-a-half-year spell there. When the midfielder hung up his boots in 2019, he returned to the Bees once more, as a coach with the club’s now highly esteemed B team.

Saunders feels that players could perhaps receive more guidance to better organize themselves for retirement. Many footballers don’t plan for their futures. They often don’t consider life after football until they have actually played their last game.

Alan Smith alluded to this when discussing how he became a commentator: “It just happened. That’s life, sometimes things take you in a direction you’re not expecting. But I was never really into coaching, so to do this was the next best thing.” 

It worked out well for the former Arsenal number nine. But that’s not always the case, especially for those who play lower down the divisions.

“Unfortunately, some footballers are wet behind the ears, they’ve never really seen the real world. They just think they will play forever and that’s not the case,” Saunders told the Sports Gazette.

“That’s why you see cases of boys coming out and being depressed. Not having a structure, and not having someone telling them what to do, affects them.”

The Sports Gazette spoke to the PFA to find out what kinds of guidance they provide for players when they leave the game.

“We go into the clubs on a number of occasions during the year. At which point we give them a presentation about the PFA and what we can provide on their behalf. Not only in terms of transitioning but also moving into retirement,” said Pat Lally, Director of Education at the PFA.

Saunders explained his experiences as a player: “The PFA do a lot of good things, but you know, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. When they come in and have discussions it’s fine and it’s great, but they’re not actually getting people qualifications. Some listen but some will just walk out the room and think they’re going to be a footballer for the rest of their life.

“A couple people come in and speak about life after football to players, but it’s few and far between. There’s not loads going on. I think they should make players take some kind of course. Some compulsory kind of course that would get them set up.

“Whether it be coaching badges, whether it be media stuff, whether it be a plumbing course. They can do that alongside their playing career so that when they do retire they are qualified and ready to go into the real world.”

It’s easy to understand the point Saunders makes, but it’s hard not to think the onus is ultimately on the players. And the PFA do provide financial support for those who may need it to study ­– not every footballer in England earns a Premier League wage.

“Anyone wishing to go to university, we provide them with £1250 a year as a bursary to enable them to purchase printers, computers, books and any other equipment they feel that they might need while they’re doing their degree program. That also applies to members who go across to the United States on scholarships and do degrees over there,” said Lally.

“And then for other courses that are nationally recognised and accredited we provide 50 percent of the cost of the fees, up to a maximum of £1,500 in any one year towards their course fees.”

It is no surprise, however, that most of the players apply for courses related to football.

“It’s mainly on the coaching side when they may be looking to go into football management,” Lally explained.

Saunders is no exception to the rule. He spoke of his own misgivings about leaving football.

“To be honest I would have struggled not having a structure. Not being able to go in with a bunch of lads all with the same common interests. I think if I didn’t have that, then I probably would have been in a bad way.”

Can you blame him for feeling that way? Throughout their lives, footballers are told to ‘stick to football’ (just ask Marcus Rashford), and for the most part they do.

So when you have footballers fearful of stepping out of their lane, combined with the media shining a spotlight on the former players who have struggled once retiring, why would they want to leave the comfort of the game?