I won the Premier League with Alan Shearer before going back to university to become a lawyer.
Professional football is not a job that lasts forever and for some they have very normal careers when it is time to hang up their boots.
A Premier League winner decided to go to university after quitting football and is now a qualified lawyer.
This man played more than 500 professional games in a career that spanned the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s before calling it a career.
This is former winger Stuart Ripley, who was also capped twice by England.
He began his career at Middlesbrough, before moving for £1.3 million to Blackburn Rovers in 1992.
Ripley achieved cult hero status when he helped them win the Premier League in the 1994/95 season in a team that contained Alan ShearerDavid Batty and Chris Sutton.
He then headed to the south coast with Southampton in 1998 and retired four years later.
Ripley was 34 when she retired and decided to enroll at the University of Central Lancashire.
Ripley said the guardian in 2015: “The only thing I knew I wanted to do when I retired was go to college. I got nine O levels and then joined Middlesbrough at 16, so that option was taken away from me. I was in the first team when I was 17 and life was going by itself.
“I won the Premier League and represented my country, but when I retired at 34 I felt like I had missed out by not going to university. So, after taking some time off, I enrolled at the University of Central Lancashire.
“My first intention was to study foreign languages, but that meant a year abroad and I couldn't just leave; By then, the children were already in school. So I ended up doing a combined course: French, criminology and law.
“I attended some law conferences and really enjoyed them. At that time, I never intended to become a lawyer.”
3
3
He also helped educate young players on various topics such as agents and social media.
Ripley added: “Football is not real life, and if you step away from it you get a different perspective and a different understanding of things. The rhythm of your life changes completely.
“When you play, you have two potentially very big highs in a week: you play on a Tuesday or Wednesday and then the weekend. It's a huge adrenaline rush. When you retire, that's very hard to replace. “You have to find another goal in life.”
He was subsequently appointed to the FA's judicial panel and was a member of the three-man regulatory commission which, in 2012, determined John Terry was guilty of using racially abusive language towards Anton Ferdinand.
He left the Brabners law firm and transitioned to a career as a law professor in 2019.
Ripley's son Connor is currently a goalkeeper at Port Vale.
