Where Are They Now is designed for you if you are a football fan who is as curious as us to find out what happened to your favourite footballers after they retired from playing.
Have you ever wondered what happened to all of those players that you have seen come and go over the years? The heroes and the villains? The saints and the sinners? The stars that you talked about for years after they had retired and those you instantly forgot?
If so, Where Are They Now? is definitely for you!
Not all players end up running pubs or become TV pundits! It's no secret what Gary Lineker is up to these days but what about the many thousands of players who have slipped from public view? The first edition of "Where Are They Now?" uncovered some fascinating post football stories including the former Arsenal striker who became Iceland's Finance Minister; Millionaires; Bankrupts; Vicars; Comedians; Singers; a Phil Collins lookalike... and one or two publicans!
Select Club
Updated: 23-11-19 Neil Fissler
Settled in the Norwich area after playing over 250 games in their colours. Retired after working as Circulation Manager for the Eastern Counties Newspapers.
Updated: 23-11-19 Neil Fissler
Les Smith won the Wartime Cup Final with Brentford in 1942 when he scored both goals at Wembley in a 2 nil victory over Portsmouth. He won it again with Chelsea in 1945. He remains the youngest player ever to appear in an FA Amateur Cup Final and won 15 War Time and Victory caps with England as you can see from the attached photograph of the illuminated address. Owned a radio and television shop in Aston was living in retirement in Lichfield, Staffs until his death in 1995.
Updated: 23-11-19
Former Leyton Orient and Chelsea left-half, Dennis Sorrell passed-on at his Limehouse, east London home on Sunday 10th November 2019, three days after his 79th birthday. He had been ill for some time.
Updated: 23-11-19
A winger known his pace and trickery, who started out at Nuneaton Borough and then played for Villa for three seasons making 70 appearances. Moved on to Chester and then to Rhyl. He served in the Army, dropping into the Central League and then underwent National Service at Oswestry. In 1962 he joined Prestatyn Town in the Welsh league where he finished his playing days. He became a plumber and later a self employed house builder before his death in 2003 at 71.
Updated: 07-11-19 Neil Fissler
After being told by doctors as a youngster he would never walk again went onto play five times for Scotland, went onto organise Youth Centres for Hackney School and worked as head of centre at Cardinal Pole School in Homerton.
Updated: 07-11-19 Neil Fissler
Jimmy worked at Haringey Sports Centre and ran a sports shop. He was a youth development officer at West Ham and coached at Spurs before his death from a heart attack at his Woodford Green home in April 2009.
Updated: 07-11-19 Mick Mayhew
Jimmy would pick me up every day for training at Cheshunt along with willy morgan in his mark 2 Lotus Cortina. So sad to he died he was a great guy.
Updated: 07-11-19 Tony Smith
Vic, lived next door to me when he played for Sunderland and I was just 12 years old and he would come out and play football with me in his high heel boots (fashion at the time!) in the street and within minutes about ten pals would appear and a full scale match would be underway. Great bloke and my Sunderland hero along with Billy Hughes.
Updated: 07-11-19 Duncan Burt
A top Genuine Man, His wife is a Lovely lady also, we lived next door to them for a few months in Spain, Genuine through and through.
Updated: 07-11-19 Nicola Holding
My uncle (Arthur Horsfield) gave me away at my wedding. I felt so proud having him walk me down the aisle
When we researched the first printed edition of 'Where Are They Now?' in the 1990's, footballers were already incredibly well paid by conventional employment standards but prior to that, players had to find a new career once they had hung up their boots.
This meant that we unearthed plenty of interesting and un-expected stories, many of which are found on the site. Sadly, there were some we could not re-produce for legal reasons - sorry!
Playing professional football, particularly at the highest level should ensure that modern players should not have to worry about money for the rest of their lives. Thankfully, this has not limited the number of fascinating tales for us to tell. For example, were you aware that former Sheffield United midfielder Curtis Woodhouse became British light welterweight champion when he took up professional boxing, having apparently 'fallen out of love' with football? If the rumours are true, he was not just a winner in the ring! At one point, he was considered to be 50 to 1 outsider to win the title and a successful £5,000 scooped him a cool £250,000 when he defeated defending champion Darren Hamilton.
As well as our regular club based pages, we also occasionally add more detailed player pages and would welcome your feedback. See: Roy Bentley, Trevor Francis, Gavin Peacock, Carlos Valderrama, Graham Potter and a look back at some of the best strikers to grace English football.
If you know of any other stories that may interest fellow fans, please do let us know.