10 Footballers Who Hated Football
Not everyone has a passion for the beautiful game.
Winning the league, representing your country, scoring that all-important winning goal: One would assume that this is a dream for every player lucky enough to make a living out of football, but it turns out that it just isn't the case.
With Real Madrid star Gareth Bale recently stating that he prefers a quiet round of golf to playing in front of 80,000 fans at the Santiago Bernabeu, it's becoming more common for players to admit that football isn't their primary passion in life.
I mean sure, the vast majority of professional footballers love the sport that has made many of them rich beyond their wildest dreams, but the feeling isn't entirely universal.
Strange as it may seem to superfans of the sport, many of the world's top players just happen to be incredible footballers and don't actually follow the game religiously. To them, football is like any other job. Well, any other job that can pay up to six figures a week that is...
Whether they became jaded and fell out of love with the beautiful game, or were just never that into it in the first place, these guys saw football as little more than their day job.
10. Ted Smith
One of the lesser-known names on this list, former England Youth goalkeeper Ted Smith called time on his career earlier this year at just 24-years-old after falling out of love with the game.
Smith had once been tipped as one of the brightest prospects in the country between the sticks, but later revealed that the pressure of playing led to a drop in his performance, and while he still enjoyed the training, he began to dread matchdays.
Smith has also spoken about just how damaging to one's mental health the culture of social media abuse can be in the sport, with fans quick to direct pejoratives at players online after a bad performance.
An academy graduate at Southend United, Smith had represented England's youth teams in several age groups and was even reportedly a transfer target of Jose Mourinho at Tottenham before deciding to hang up his gloves for good.
More power to him.