Footballers' Lives

LEE SANDFORD played top-flight football for Portsmouth, before becoming a popular, no-nonsense defender at Stoke City and Sheffield United. He made 626 appearances as a pro, before swapping football boots for the trading floor, and he now runs courses demonstrating how anyone with a bit of drive and ambition can trade profitably from the comfort of their own homes.

He played over 400 games as a pro, most of them in the top-flight, and he’s now one of the most qualified coaches in the country. Here PAUL WILLIAMS talks about working with Mauricio Pochettino, keeping Coventry up with a final day goal at White Hart Lane, madness at the Baseball Ground under Robert Maxwell, how Big Ron Atkinson remains such an influential figure in his life, and how football can finally embrace a new dawn following the Greg Clarke and Gordon Taylor eras.

IAN WALKER made 312 appearances for Tottenham, winning the League Cup in 1999, and rubbing shoulders with the likes of Paul Gascoigne, Jurgen Klinsmann, Christian Gross, George Graham and many other colourful characters. He also won a handful of England caps, but his international career was overshadowed by a high-profile error that led to Italy’s World Cup qualifying win at Wembley in 1997. After retiring, and thanks to his old mate Nicholas Anelka, he became a goalkeeping coach out in the Chinese Super League, where he’s been for nearly a decade.

He played over 200 games as a pro, enjoying a spell in the top-flight with Notts County and a loan period at Manchester United. But CHRIS SHORT saw his career ruined after taking the acne drug Isotretinoin. It led to chronic muscle fatigue, and in 2001 he collapsed on the pitch at Craven Cottage. However, his 15-year battle with the drug’s shocking side effects inspired him to pursue a career in sports science.

Former Portsmouth and Wigan skipper ARJAN DE ZEEUW came into professional football late after studying for a medical science degree in his native Holland, yet he still became an established Premier League player – even becoming Tony Blair’s favourite footballer… After retirement, he turned down a coaching opportunity with Swansea to retrain as a detective, and now works on murder investigations and other high profile crimes.