Before, During and After Professional Football

Danny Thomas is a former professional footballer who started his career as a trainee at Nottingham Forest and Leicester, making his debut in the Premiership against Newcastle United. He went on to maintain a career in the game playing for a number of clubs including A.F.C Bournemouth. He is now a Business Development Executive at Nimbus Maps and Podcast Creator and Host for the Back of the Net and Beyond Podcast where Danny interviews guests about their transitions from sport into other careers.

In this episode I discuss with former professional footballer Danny Thomas, about the psychological qualities that helped him break into and maintain a career in professional football. We also went on to talk about his debut, and we discussed the challenges of transitioning out of professional football and into the workplace.

Enjoy listening!

Key Learning Points:

Becoming a professional footballer and then sustaining a career are completely different things
For me it wasn’t just football, football, football, I always wanted to focus and apply myself correctly in other ways
I looked to generally challenge management, though not in a negative way. I was never afraid to ask questions.
You have to deal with doing everything right, training well, sleeping well, eating properly and then sometimes not feeling right in a game and playing poorly, that’s football.
On retiring from professional football, you need to put forward your transferable skills and how they’re going to translate into the organisation that your hoping to move into.

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To Listen to Football or Soccer Podcast Episodes

Podcast Ep18: Kieron Brady – From Professional Football to Alcoholism Consultant

Podcast Episode Ep27: Natalie Henderson – How to Develop Mental Toughness with Young Footballers

Podcast Episode Ep43: Jamie Forrester – Thriving in Professional Football

Podcast Ep49: How Does Sport Psychology in Elite Football Academies Help – James Maurice

Podcast Ep51: Peter Ramage, Brendan Pearson and Julian Dowe – Why Talking Matters

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David Charlton

Global Sports Psychologist located near Durham and willing to travel Internationally. Managing Director – Inspiring Sporting Excellence. With over 10 years experience supporting athletes, coaches, parents and teams to achieve their goals, quickly.

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