You grew up in Belgium, after your parents moved there from England. Did you ever come close to making it as a professional player?
When I was a kid, I came up through Sint-Truiden’s youth academy. I played at the elite standard of Belgian youth football, then when I was 18 I went to England to do a degree in football coaching at Myerscough College in Preston. I was still turning out for the college where there were links with Stockport County and several other clubs, but I wasn’t getting the same chances as some of the other players and decided that I probably wasn’t physically or mentally made out to be a
