Life after football isn’t easy but some superstars of the game end up in new careers when the floodlights fade.
Manchester United and Liverpool legends Gary Neville, Roy Keane, and Jamie Carragher became pundits but some choose to completely reinvent themselves.
Arjan De Zeeuw, once of Portsmouth, became a private detective and ex-Arsenal star David Hillier decided to become a fireman.
And one Premier League champion swapped winning titles for winning cases.
Stuart Ripley was a title winner alongside Alan Shearer at Blackburn Rovers in 1995 and holds two England caps – but after a fine career on the pitch he’s now a solicitor off it.
He shot to stardom with Middlesbrough in the late 1980s, before a move to Ewood Park in 1992, where he made over 200 appearances for the club.
His Three Lions appearances against San Marino in 1993 and Moldova in 1997, showed the span of his talents, and he was only hindered by the emergence of David Beckham, who he replaced in that second appearance.
After Blackburn, he had stints with Southampton, Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday, before retiring, however, things didn’t end there.
A keen student, Ripley was always likely to return to further education – and he did so with aplomb.
In 2010, he became a solicitor after studying French, criminology and law at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, and that encouraged another career path.
Speaking to The Guardian, Ripley explained the choice: “The only thing I knew I wanted to do when I retired was to go to university. I got nine O-levels and then joined Middlesbrough at 16, so that option was taken away. I was in the first team at 17 and life was taking care of itself.
“I won the Premier League and represented my country, but when I retired at 34, I felt I’d missed out by not going to university. So, after taking a bit of time out, I enrolled at the University of Central Lancashire.
“My first intention was to do a foreign languages degree, but that meant a year abroad and I couldn’t just up and leave; by then, the kids were in school. So I ended up on a combined course: French, criminology and law.”
Ripley also explained the need to have alternative paths after retiring as a player.
Football moves fast, and replacing that is important – something Ripley identified after hanging up his boots.
“Football’s not real life, and if you do move away from it, you get a different perspective and a different grasp on things.
“The rhythm of your life changes completely. When you’re playing, you’ve got two potentially very big highs within a week – you play on a Tuesday or Wednesday and then at the weekend.
“That’s a huge adrenaline rush. When you retire, that’s very difficult to replace. You’ve got to find another goal in life.”
Despite that, he still remains close to the game through his son, Connor, who currently plays with Morecambe as a goalkeeper and is a regular with their first-team.
His started off at Middlesbrough, just like his father, and had various loan spells including at clubs like Oxford United and Bradford City, before permanent moves to Preston North End and Morecambe, where he now plays.
From a Premier League winners’ medal to England caps and now a career in law, Ripley has shown that after football, anything is possible.
