Meet the legends behind a new advice service for professional players | OneFootball

Being a professional footballer is one of the greatest jobs imaginable.

You get to play the beautiful game in front of thousands of adoring fans every week (pandemic permitting) while earning lots of money for doing so.

But what happens when the crowd stops cheering? Even the best players in the world must need some friendly advice about matters away from the pitch from time to time.

That’s where Player 4 Player comes in, a new player-led collective offering guidance and support to professional players both during and after their careers.

Founded by former Premier League players Stiliyan Petrov, Emile Heskey, Gaizka Mendieta, Michael Johnson and Gareth Farrelly, Player 4 Player aims to equip players with practical knowledge and support on issues such as career development and transition, commercial and financial advice, business planning, branding and PR, media training, education and legal advice.

“The co-founders are all doing or have done the Uefa Masters Course for international players,” former Liverpool and England striker Heskey told OneFootball.

“Having done the course and having gone through that procedure of figuring out what we call our second career, we sat down and brainstormed and it was born out of that really, looking at where we fit within the footballing eco-system and what we could do to help.

“We sat down and reminisced about what was great about football and then we inevitably turned to the stuff that isn’t so great and what we went through.”

Being a professional footballer just got even better. For more information, check out the official Player 4 Player website.