How to Be an Ex-Footballer

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However overpaid and preening you might assume Premier League footballers to be, think again. They're worse, according to this amusing insider's account * Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year * The former Liverpool and Spurs player added: “I totally understand the buzz, and when you’re in it every single day, it’s hard to get out of that.” The only thing more ridiculous than a professional footballer is an ex-professional footballer... the eagerly awaited new book from the bestselling phenomenon The source material is promising. How do you cope with life after one of the best jobs possible and the twin highs of competition and earning almost unfathomable amounts of money? Many footballers don't cope well at all, with almost 40% going bankrupt within five years of retirement. Time on their hands can also leave time for various addictions to creep in. Those facts are mentioned, but this book is more about the more entertaining things footballers have gone on to do, whether it's a career in art or releasing their own range of condoms. However overpaid and preening you might assume Premier League footballers to be, think again. They're worse, according to this amusing insider's account Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year

Football star turned bestselling author Peter Crouch joined The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about his fourth book, How to be an Ex Footballer.As previously mentioned at the end of my first ever book review, I have happily returned for a third instalment by every football fan’s favourite robot podcast host. The host of That Peter Crouch Podcast concluded: “And people will always try and put you down, but as long as you’ve got that inner belief, and keep having that, and good people around you, you’ll always be okay. You stroll up to a nite club as player league player and you’re straight in, no queuing, no paying, no hassle, people want to buy you drinks. They want to be your friend… then you finish and your invisible, no one cares. You go from 50’000 people singing your name every week to struggling to get a table in pizza express’ Who knew that a footballer could be funny? ... What you realise, as you laugh out loud, is that football has been taken too seriously by too many people for too long... Most other football books wither by comparison Daily Mail Sports Book of the Year

So walk with me into the dressing-room, to find out which players refuse to touch a football before a game, to discover why a load of millionaires never have any shower-gel, and to hear what Cristiano Ronaldo says when he looks at himself in the mirror. Talking about what we learn at school, the former Liverpool and Tottenham player said: “I don’t know why we’re not taught about mortgages or bank accounts, but we’re taught Pythagoras Theorem. I’ve never used that in my life, but I’d love to know these other things, life skills, if you know what I mean.”Speaking about how some former players move into management, and how he didn’t, Peter said: “There are times when I think I’m missing out. When I saw Scott Parker getting promoted, I feel like I’m never going to have that buzz. I’m never going to have that team around me and that chance to win a game or win a trophy again. That’s never going to be there for me. There’s something inside me that feels a bit hurt by that.”

man-children are thrown out into the real world, utterly defenceless apart from their multi-million-pound bank accounts. Who knew that a footballer could be funny? ... What you realise, as you laugh out loud, is that football has been taken too seriously by too many people for too long... Most other football books wither by comparison * Daily Mail Sports Book of the Year * Peter himself has managed to sidestep some of those pitfalls with his success as a pundit along with his podcasts and of course his books. In this book he examines some of the ways other ex players have also successfully forged a new life after their careers ended. Peter goes in search of the answer to what his second career might be and encounters stories far more bizarre than anything you'll find on the pitch. From the pleasure and pain of management to the lessons we can learn from Jamie Carragher and Joe Cole on not going to seed. From those staying in the sport - the diehard veterans, coaches, managers, owners and of course the legion of pundits, to those moving on to pastures new. Peter talks to entrepreneurs, men of the cloth, eco warriors, artists, private detectives and budding actors, as well as those who've lost their way in addiction, crime and NFTs. The first truly insider guide to being a Premiership footballer, from Britain's funniest sporting icon

I'm not a big book reader, I'm just not. And I've skimmed through this already and thought 'I'm gonna really, really, really, really like this. Seriously, I'm really gonna like it -- Chris Moyles Speaking about one ex-pro who changed paths, Peter recalled a trip to the cinema with his wife, Abbey Clancy. “We were watching the film The Theory of Everything. Amazing film, but I just wasn’t expecting a Chelsea centre-half to be in it! I was sitting with Abbey and it was a great film and then the doctor came in, and I said: ‘That’s Frank Leboeuf!’ And she said: ‘I don’t care.’ And I said, ‘No, seriously, that is definitely Frank Leboeuf!’ And she said, again, ‘I don’t care in the slightest.’