Top Ten: The footballers who retired early

After Jamie Carragher’s announcement that he is to retire from football at the end of the season aged 35, here is a Tibs Top 10 in honour of those players who had their careers cut short due to injury and those that decided to prematurely call it a day for personal reasons…

Number 10 – Curtis Woodhouse
Former England under-21 international Curtis Woodhouse switched sports aged 26 to pursue a new career as a professional boxer.
The ex-Birmingham City player admitted that he had been involved in over 100 street fights and had a history of theft, robbery and affray. It wasn’t too much of a surprise to see him swap the pitch for the ring then after he claimed to have “fallen out of love” with football.
With boxing being his first love, he was known to spar in the gym after football training without his manager’s knowledge, saying: “A few times at Sheffield United, Neil Warnock would drag me in and say ‘I hear you’ve been boxing’. I’d be standing there with a big black eye and a fat lip and deny it.”
Woodhouse won on his boxing debut despite having no previous amateur experience, however he returned to part-time football after just one fight when he joined Conference outfit Rushden and Diamonds to fulfil a promise made to the consortium that took over the club.
Soon after, he had his boxing licence suspended following a conviction for assaulting a police officer whilst drunk (this was while he playing Grimsby and not under the British Boxing Board of Control).
Since then he’s managed to juggle part-time football with his professional boxing career.

Number 9 – Sebastian Deisler
Next up we have the first of our injury retirements – former Germany international and Bayern Munich star Sebastian Deisler – whose knee problems meant he had to call it a day at 27.
Known for his combination of speed, dribbling and crossing ability, he was tipped for greatness after making his Bundesliga debut as an 18-year-old for Borussia Moenchengladbach in 1998.
He moved to Bayern in 2002 but could only manage 62 appearances in four-and-a-half years so was unable to establish himself as a constant starter throughout that time and although he missed the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, the German did make 36 international appearances in seven years.
During his time in Munich he struggled to cope with the pressure and was soon treated in a city clinic for depression for several months and after re-joining the squad in 2001 he suffered a relapse and received ambulant treatment.
When Michael Ballack departed for Chelsea, Deisler was seen as his replacement but in March 2006 another knee injury forced him out of the World Cup on home soil.
He returned in November but without any confidence in ever regaining stability in his injured knee, a few months later he announced his retirement stating that he was not made for the football business.

Number 8 – Carlos Roa
England fans will be all too familiar with goalkeeper Carlos Roa who decided to devote himself to religion when he was only 29.
Roa, who was a practising Seventh-day Adventist throughout his career, played a pivotal role in Argentina’s penalty-shootout win over England in the knockout phase of the 1998 World Cup in which he kept a clean sheet in all three group matches.
Nicknamed ‘Lettuce’, due to his strict vegetarian diet, he retired soon after in order to take a religious retreat and after a year of charitable and religious work spent as a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, his convictions led to his refusal to sign a contract with a new club. His reason? Because he thought the world was going to end in the near future.

Number 7 – Dean Ashton
Dean Ashton had everything needed to be a top player but a long –term injury forced him to retire prematurely at the age of 26.
After coming through Crewe Alexandra’s impressive youth system Ashton dominated the Football League goalscoring charts and was soon snapped up by Premier League club Norwich City in 2005.
Pundits believed his goals would be the key to securing the Canaries safety and although he did score a number of important goals, they were relegated that year.
Despite interest from top flight clubs he reiterated his desire to stay and help Norwich gain promotion but in January 2006 he joined West Ham for a fee of £7m.
At international level he progressed from England Under 17’s all the way up to the senior side where he gained one cap.

Number 6 – Rory Allen
This entry is for pure comedy value – Rory Allen, who was once Portsmouth’s record signing, decided to go AWOL from Fratton Park in 2002 aged 25. It turned out he quit football to go and watch the Ashes in Australia in what he described as “an amazing experience, despite the scoreline.”
Allen was Pompey’s first million-pound signing after joining from Tottenham for £1m, but that didn’t stop him tearing up his £3,000-a-week contract to join up with England’s Barmy Army of fans for all five matches which they ended up losing by 384 runs.
After handing in his resignation letter, Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie said: “It’s quite extraordinary – I’ve never heard of anything like it during my time in football.
“Rory’s letter said he didn’t want to play football anymore and he wanted to look to a different career.
“But we’ve been unable to speak to him or make any contact. He hasn’t been seen and the assumption is that he has gone to Australia.”

Number 5 – Eric Cantona
‘King Eric’ surprisingly quit football at the age of 30 – when he was at the very peak of his professional playing career. Even more surprisingly he took up a career in cinema once his playing days were over.
Cantona played a pivotal role in Manchester United’s revival as a footballing force and he now enjoys iconic status at the club having won four titles in five years, including two doubles.
A career in film has seen him star in Elizabeth in 1998 and more recently the football based film Looking for Eric.
Shortly after his retirement from United, he became captain of the French national beach football team and is now an ambassador for the sport.

Number 4 – Marco van Basten
Perhaps the greatest player in our top 10 – Marco van Basten retired at just 28 following an injury that occurred two years before.
Known for his strength on the ball, his tactical awareness, strikes and volleys, he is regarded as one of the greatest forwards of all time having scored 277 goals.
Van Basten was named European Footballer of the Year three times and FIFA World Player of the Year in 1992.
He made his last appearance in Milan’s Champions League final defeat to Marseille in 1993 and retired from the game after spending two years on the sidelines.

Number 3 – Espen Baardsen
Perhaps one of the most unusual reasons for quitting football comes from former Tottenham goalkeeper Espen Baardsen who decided quit aged 25 because he was bored of the game.
The shot-stopper claimed: “Once you’ve played in the Premier League and been to the World Cup, you’ve seen it and done it. It was dictating what I could do and when. I felt unsatisfied intellectually; I wanted to travel the world.”
Baardsen was always popular with the White Hart Lane faithful despite being second choice behind Ian Walker. A move to Watford followed before joining his final club Everton in 2002.
The American-born ‘keeper strangely opted to play for Norway (where his parents come from) at international level despite having never been there himself.
After quitting Spurs he went travelling for 18 months before joining asset management fund Eclectica in 2005.
You’ll be happy to hear that he’s now “more relaxed, five kilos lighter, fitter and healthier” than he was at the end of his footballing career.

Number 2 – Shane Supple
Another goalkeeper now and another unusual career change – former Ipswich player Shane Supple walked away from football aged 22 because he had “fallen out of love with the game.”
Supple cited his desire to play Gaelic football with the Dublin county team – who he’s currently playing for – as a major motivating factor in retiring early.
The former Republic of Ireland under 21 international was highly rated at Portman Road having progressed through the club’s academy and made 38 first team appearances.
Fair play to Supple though, he didn’t want to continue playing football just to make other people happy and upon his retirement he said: “As you grow up you realise there are other things in life and to be honest, the game is not what I thought it was.
“Deep down my heart is not in the game anymore and I’m not going to go into work every day trying to convince myself that it is, so it’s the right time for me to walk away.”

Number 1 – Fabrice Muamba
Fittingly number one should be reserved for miracle man Fabrice Muamba who stared death in the face for 78 minutes after suffering a cardiac arrest during Bolton Wanderer’s FA Cup tie at Tottenham last year.
The football world was stunned and tributes came flooding in for the former England under 21 international, remarkably though he’s made a rapid recovery and has recently been a pundit for ITV’s Africa Cup of Nations coverage.
On 15th August 2012 he officially retired from football aged 24, based on the recommendation of his medical team.

Other notable mention

Hidetoshi Nakata
Nakata was one of the most famous Asian footballers of his generation and in 2004 was named in Pele’s FIFA 100 – a list of top living footballers at the time.
After such an illustrious career which saw him compete for Japan in three World Cups and spells with Roma and Parma in Italy and a brief spell with Bolton in the Premier League he decided to hang up his boots aged 29.
Often described as the ‘Japanese David Beckham’, he was always a bit of an attention seeker having dyed his hair blond for the 1998 World Cup in order to attract the attention of European scouts, so it comes as no surprise that after football he became involved in the fashion industry and modelling.

Andy Maynard

Twitter @AndyMaynard91

This photograph was provided by FOTOKIOSK Hamburg