Your football "career" .

[marty21]

I loved playing as a kid , games that lasted for hours in the park near our house , 20/30 a side . Played at school in the playground & for the school team up to 11. I wasn't a star player seemed to play left back as no one else wanted to , I'm right footed but could kick with the left, I was slightly inspired by a story about Bobby Charlton who practiced obsessively & learnt to be two-footed.

Didn't play that much in my teens , apart from the odd kick about . But got more enthusiastic again at Uni , played in a few teams (still enthusiastic but shit)

Moved to London in my 20s, played 5-aside every week for about 10 years with a group from work . Also played in a Sunday league for a few years. And played with another work side every few weeks later on.

Then, at about 35 , I was a sub at a game for a work side , Gaffer chucked me on , then subbed me again after their young & fast winger kept whizzing past me ffs . That was it , the legs had gone , hung up my boots.

Had a brief comeback at 40 on a stag weekend , pulled a hamstring early doors, and that was it .

 

[planetgeli]

Had a county trial at 15 and never made it. Pissed me off. Played cricket instead. (Before this, we'd won the U/14 county league. Went off and did the same with cricket at U/16. I have better cricket stories.)

What amazes me today is everyone in Wales seems to have had trials with all sorts of clubs. Way beyond what is reasonable for the population or the amount of people I meet. Things must be different now.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

my first and last competitive game was in a 5 a side league for primary school kids (not sure if it was lewisham council or ILEA who organised it) when i was about 10, and i only played due to half our squad being away on a school trip, and there was a balls up about getting the match postponed...

 

[marty21]

My ex-brother in law was a pro-footballer , an apprentice at Villa , a pro for 2 years , on the bench regularly but never played for the 1st team . Graham Taylor took over , released him , he dropped to non-league , still got paid to play and enjoyed it . Must have been so frustrating to get so close to making it. He was well paid for the 2 years he was in the squad tbf.

 

[scifisam]

Played for a lesbian football team for about three years in my twenties. It was almost entirely kickarounds in the park, but hey, we had a kit!

 

[marty21]

Had a county trial at 15 and never made it. Pissed me off. Played cricket instead. (Before this, we'd won the U/14 county league. Went off and did the same with cricket at U/16. I have better cricket stories.)

What amazes me today is everyone in Wales seems to have had trials with all sorts of clubs. Way beyond what is reasonable for the population or the amount of people I meet. Things must be different now.

You should start a companion cricket thread! I don't have much of a cricket career , played as a kid , and work had an occasional team. Couldn't really bat , couldn't bowl , and I was crap in the field.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

You should start a companion cricket thread!

hmm

my cricketing abilities / achievements are less than my footballing achievements...

 

[Steel Icarus]

Most of the time had a ball at my feet, even before I knew anything about teams and rules. This only intensified as I got to about 8 or 9; if I wasn't out playing I was reading Match, Shoot and The Encyclopaedia of British Football.

Every year at my primary the Year 5s would have a challenge match early in the year against the Year 6s, basically as you had to be 10 to play for the school team. Within five minutes I'd dribbled down the left, cut inside, sold the school's first choice centre back an outrageous dummy then smashed the ball into the right hand bottom corner after shaping to curl one to the goalie's left. We lost the match 6-1 but I was asked to play for the school team, but because I already played for the Cubs at the weekends my parents didn't let me.

Played for Cubs and Scouts with all the kudos that got me at school (i.e. none whatsoever) but enjoyed it very much. Our home kit was a royal blue shirt with a red and white diagonal sash, very nice. I played two or three seasons for the Scouts and always felt I was going to score, and I think I fairly regularly did - I was a left winger who liked to come into the inside left position with late runs. I could use both feet equally well after spending hours practicing with a ball against a wall wearing only one shoe on my weaker foot, my left. My Cubs team got to the final of the annual District 6 a side tourney - I scored a free kick over the wall in the semi to get us to the final - but we lost on penalties after a dour 0-0 after we'd battered everyone all day. My kick was straight at the keeper.

When I got to secondary there were trials for the school team. Again I started really well - put on the right wing for some reason I ran forward and had a pop from quite a way out; the ball popped up just as I hit it and it arrowed into the top corner. All the big kids were shouting "get him in the team!", but again Scout commitments and my parents' determination to ruin everything put a stop to that.

One time I went for a practice with a goalie friend of mine, Step, who played for the town's juniors. Their captain turned up, a kid called James, and I absolutely fucking rinsed him for an hour. Just one of those perfect days where everything went perfectly, I was hitting it from everywhere, out wide, 30 yards, cheeky chips.

I sort of lost interest about 14 when I got a computer. I've played for a few spells since, five a side, and I can still lash a football either foot - I reckon I'd still be able to score pennos and free kicks - but the last time I played it was a bit farcical, there were lads playing less than half my age and I couldn't run.

I wish I'd kept it up in my 20s, though I was the sort of player who would get clattered or kicked every week by fat blokes after megging them in the first ten minutes of each grim Sunday league match. I was never anywhere near county level, I was always very inconsistent, but on my day I felt I could score from anywhere. I couldn't tackle, head it, keep goal, and couldn't do more than 3 keepy ups if my life depended on it, and I was always seeing angles and passes I wasn't quite good enough to pull off, but you know. I DO wonder how good I might have got had I been spotted at 10, when for a shining couple of years I was as good as anyone I knew.

 

[The39thStep]

School team football, county team football and junior team football . Trial game at QPR but never asked back . Pub teams , occasional SWP / left teams in friendly games . SWP Skegness 7 a side champs . More pub teams in Manchester , managed pub teams in Manchester , played in veterans cup for four seasons , council 5 a side league league , various 5 a side . Last ‘competitive ‘ game was aged 60 in Portugal at a local festival competition .

Edit : it’s the playing and the craic that’s important whatever level one may or may not play at .

 

[xenon]

I was once made captain of the team at primary school... Aged about 6... it went down hill after that.

 

[xenon]

Actually more recently did try blind football but we never had enough players. And I was the oldest / blindest one playing. Quite enjoyed the shooting / passing practise though.

 

[marty21]

My finest moment was at 10 , we had a five aside "tournament" at school , we had 4 "houses", St George,St David,St Andrew,St Patrick. I scored all 4 when St David thumped St George 4-1

 

[DownwardDog]

I played in central midfield for the school first team and was a decent passer but that was pretty much the extent of my skillset other than being very fit and therefore able to contribute for the full game.

I did cynically scythe down the Deputy Head in a 6th form pupils vs staff end of year game when I knew the ref wasn't looking.

At university the teams trained on a Wednesday afternoon when I had RAF commitments so I couldn’t play for them. I did play for a pub team even though I never went to the pub and that was great fun with widely variable quality of opposition and great bantz.

After university I went very deep into cycling and never really played competitively again.

I am a very involved football dad now and after the kids' games we sometimes have a parents and coaching staff 10 minute a half game against the opposition while the kids look embarrassed.

 

[tonysingh]

I was shite at football. Where other kids would play and pretend to be Gary Lineker or Gazza or whoever, I'd be wanting to be Micky Droy.

 

[Steel Icarus]

My finest moment was at 10 , we had a five aside "tournament" at school , we had 4 "houses", St George,St David,St Andrew,St Patrick. I scored all 4 when St David thumped St George 4-1

A school team very local to me got to the All England schools final in 2005 where they were beaten 5-0 by a school from Croydon...all five goals scored by one Victor Moses, later of Chelsea

 

[Steel Icarus]

I was shite at football. Where other kids would play and pretend to be Gary Lineker or Gazza or whoever, I'd be wanting to be Micky Droy.

Mickey Droy, fucking hell. Brilliant to get in Top Trumps as he was 6 foot 4 and nobody in the pack was bigger than him

 

[Steel Icarus]

Look at him. Look at Micky Droy. AT TWENTY SIX YEARS OLD

 

[tonysingh]

Mickey Droy, fucking hell. Brilliant to get in Top Trumps as he was 6 foot 4 and nobody in the pack was bigger than him

I wasn't sure anyone else would know who he was! My heroes as a kid were him and Keith Stevens. You can perhaps see a type emerging.

 

[Ax^]

hmm my football career.. hmm well aside from Gaelic football as a young nipper

no you cannot tackle people like that .. go play rugby

 

[Steel Icarus]

I wasn't sure anyone else would know who he was! My heroes as a kid were him and Keith Stevens. You can perhaps see a type emerging.

I had a sticker of Micky Droy on my bedroom door. I wasn't a Chelsea fan - I've been Liverpool since the 1978-79 season - but I thought he looked brilliant. I just loved football, whatever colour.

 

[WouldBe]

I was never really into football but in junior school aged 8 or 9 they decided to have a fiver aside competition so I put my name down. Got through to the final and setup the winning goal and still got the trophy. Not played since.

 

[marty21]

I wasn't sure anyone else would know who he was! My heroes as a kid were him and Keith Stevens. You can perhaps see a type emerging.

I remember the Droy!

 

[discokermit]

i played left back for brockmoor foundry in a charity match against a bunch of scouts who were all eighteen or nineteen. i did a load of speed and shouted at everybody. we lost twelve two. started kicking the shit out of the little bastards in the end. i nearly got sent off for arguing with the linesman, who was an electrician from work, in his sixties, who i played chess against every dinnertime.

it was a total disgrace in every respect. some of the parents were in tears when ticka off the shotblaster kicked some lad in the chest and he had to be carried off and take his inhaler.

 

[Numbers]

I was the first official Urban75 goalkeeper - El Goalio

 

[Steel Icarus]

 

[tonysingh]

Oh just remembered.... During my last stretch inside, we managed to arrange football matches between different houseblocks, down on the astroturf pitch. The screws were fretting over who would ref the games until we assured them we didnt need referees, it was just a kickabout. Fuck me them games were brutal! It'd end up 15ish a side or more, full blooded tackles, the works. And surprisingly enough, no aggro at all. I think we valued the games as a temporary glimpse of normality.

I hope they still play them.

 

[discokermit]

Look at him. Look at Micky Droy. AT TWENTY SIX YEARS OLD

View attachment 418601

our centre half in the charity match looked like that. he was massive. paul, off the disamatic moulding machine. spent the whole match whining "they keep coming on me wrong side" like a big fucking baby.

 

[Hollis]

My football career effectively peaked and ended at primary school...

At the village primary school rose to be Captain while patrolling the right wing. Unfortunately we screwed up in the one main tournament we played and lost in the final. Lack of discipline in the defence. In-game disorder within the team. Never got over it. Some still blame the headteacher/manager.

Then got sacked as Captain... the rationale being that "I needed to concentrate on my game". The reality was that another dad had weezeled his way into the favours of the headteacher and pursuaded him to make his son Captain.

Then at secondary school I suddenly discovered there were loads of people better than me, and that was that.

There was a brief reprise at University, where I played in the college 2nd team with no success.

The final fling was Sunday afternoon knockabouts on Wandsworth Common during the early 90s with some mates.

 

[discokermit]

our goalie, who had gone quite bald prematurely, was ragged for weeks after the match. we kept saying he went bald from the friction of the net when he was fetching the ball from the back of it.

 

[Jimmy Don't]

I'm 3 months off 50 and still playing 4th XI football for the club I run. Obviously dropped down from the 1st XI over the years, but it's still a passion and the best thing I do for headspace. Was a box to box, all-tackling, all heading centre mid for years, but I rarely do that for 90 mins these days. No issue marking a 20 year old striker at centre back though, you spend half the game resting!