David Bentley broke down in tears as he announced his retirement from football at the age of 29.
The former Arsenal, Tottenham, Norwich and Blackburn midfielder started crying during an interview on Sky Sports after he admitted he had “fallen out of love with the game”.
The former England international, who won seven caps in 2007 and 2008, but had not played for over a year after a spell in Russia with FC Rostov, said he social media had made football boring.
“I’ve given up football,” he revealed on live TV. “I’ve taken the decision to take my life in a different direction.
“I’ve just had little baby twins, three months old, and I’ve got a little four-year-old and I want to focus on that. My love for the game went a little bit and I didn’t want to carry on just for the fact of paying me money.
“It’s not really ever been an option for me to do that. I’m involved in a restaurant in Spain and we’re bringing it to the UK, so there is a lot of work there.
“I enjoyed every minute of it and had a smile on my face every day but I don’t want to carry on taking my family to a place we really don’t want to be. Life’s too short to do that.”
Bentley, who was tipped for the top as a youth player at Arsenal and cost Tottenham £15m from Blackburn in 2008, added: “I have no regrets. I loved every minute of playing but the game has changed. When I first started it was the enjoyment, going in to work every day was brilliant.
“Now it’s a little bit robotic, the social media side of it, the money that has come into the game. I hate to say it, but it’s made it boring and predictable – calculated – and to go and sign another three or four years into that wasn’t really an option for me.”
