CAREER INTERVIEW: EX-PRO FOOTBALLER

Ever wondered what it’s like to play football as your full-time career? 

Recently we sat down with ex professional footballer Tony Sinclair, who gave us an insight into what it’s really like to play football at pro level, as well as how to stay on top of your best form, and what advice he would give to young people wanting to follow in his footsteps. 

Let’s get into the interview!

What team(s) did you play for?

Being a local team to me, I started off playing at Beckenham Town. Then as a school boy, went on to Crystal Palace, then West Ham until the age of 16. After not getting a scholarship there I then ended up playing for Gillingham - although I actually fell out of love with football whilst there so stopped playing for a while. 

Then after 10 years of going between various teams, I ended up signing a pro contract back with Gillingham. 

Overall, the teams I played professionally with were Gillingham, Lincoln City and Woking. 

source: https://www.skysports.com/football/player/2891/tony-sinclair

What age did you start getting into football? 

I was kind of a late starter, I didn’t start playing football until I was around 8-9 years old. 

But from what my mum says, as soon as I could walk I was kicking a ball around! 

What was the pro training schedule like? 

It’s very very busy - training on Monday and Tuesday, in most clubs you’ll get Wednesday off, then train on Thursday and Friday, play a match on Saturday, with Sunday off depending on how the match went. 

Did you have a backup plan if football didn’t work out? 

I never really had a plan B, but football was never really my plan A either. As I’ve got older, I’ve started to realise that football’s just something I enjoy doing, I never thought of it as a career. It was something that I enjoyed doing whilst getting paid for doing it, and it meant I didn’t have to get a 9-5. 

But you start to realise as you get older that the career is actually really short, and if you’ve not set yourself up with enough money, you’ll have to get a 9-5 anyway. 

Something I’ve now realised which I didn’t when I was younger and when certain things didn’t go my way in football, is that football is like any other job, there is politics and it’s not just about talent it's about who you know sometimes. 

How did you calm your nerves before a game? 

I wasn’t really someone who got too nervous, because football was my fun, my enjoyment, my release from anything else - so there was never a need to feel nervous.

Even when playing in big stadiums I was just thinking how this is my time to enjoy it, I think that’s how I stayed calm. 

But I remember when I was playing at Gillingham we had a psychologist come in and it was funny, as he went through a bunch of questions and one of them was asking how important you think mentality is in football out of 100%, where most of the team answered 70-80%. He stopped us all, turned around and asked us how often we worked on our mentality, to which we were like, well… never. He explained that it’s probably the biggest part of football, so we should be working on it! 

Did you have a plan / routine to get yourself in the right state of mind? 

You get superstitions, and little weird things like I always used to put my left sock on first, and I would always be the second to last out. Just things like that, which I suppose was me sub-consciously getting myself in the zone ready to play. 

What was the hardest part of being a footballer? 

Doing it as a youngster, you miss out on a lot while growing up - you get FOMO when missing out on parties and social events that all your friends are doing. When professional, things get really busy over Christmas, so you do miss quite a bit of time with your family as well. 

Were there any sacrifices you had to make for your career? 

I missed part of my friend’s wedding due to football, but I think the biggest one was when my grandad sadly passed away. It was kind of a thing where I knew he was sick, and I could’ve jumped on a flight over to see him but I didn’t want to let the team down so I decided to play the game that Saturday, but by the end of the day he’d already passed away. You make sacrifices, you make choices, you definitely miss things in life and that can be tough sometimes. Depending on where you get to in football is whether it’s worth it or not - I never made it to a point where I could just retire from it but I’m still very grateful for all of the years that I did play. 

Do you have a favourite career moment? 

I’ve got a couple, when signing back on as a professional with Gillingham - it felt like I’d done a full circle. I was quite proud of myself, as I’d stepped out of football previously, and to work my way back up, especially as a defender, is pretty hard. 

The second one is when I was at Gillingham, Soccer AM played a goal-line clearance that I did so that was like my 5 minutes of fame - that was fun.

As well as playing in a couple of finals that were always exciting and are things I’ll always remember. 

WATCH THE GOAL-LINE CLEARANCE:

What advice would you give to young footballers wanting to go pro? 

The advice I would give to any youngster wanting to go professional in football or any other sport or career is just to understand that you are going to have to make sacrifices. You’re gonna get to points where it feels like it’s not worth it, and that's when you have to push through. Because like I said, there are plenty of footballers that make it who might not be that talented, but they work really really hard. Also knowing your sport is important, whether that’s football or swimming or gymnastics - watch it, watch it, watch it! You will learn so much by just watching.

I would say for anyone wanting to get into football, it’s about dedication and knowing that you will miss out on things, but it will be worth it if it's what you really want. 

Lastly, do you have any funny stories from your time in football? 

There’s always funny things that happen in changing rooms and stuff like that, some which tend to get you into trouble. I remember as a youth team player, we were being quite boisterous in the changing rooms and somehow managed to knock down a whole dividing wall - which didn’t go down very well, we definitely paid for that in runs. 

Or sometimes for whoever came in dressed the worst, their clothes would get taped up to the walls or ceiling - it was always a bit of banter. 

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How do you feel after reading this? Has it persuaded you to chase your dreams and think about pursuing a career such as a pro football player or similar? 

We hope you enjoyed this interview! 

Let us know if you found this motivational or helpful.

Get in touch if you have any queries or need any help with your career search. Also if there are any careers you would like us to cover.

AUTHOR: GRACE MCGRATH - DIGITAL RESEARCHER