Watford legend Troy Deeney set to change sport in surprising career move | OneFootball

Former Watford and Birmingham City striker Troy Deeney is set for a new sporting adventure, after entering the UK Open Pool Championship.

Deeney is of course best known for his 11-year stint with Watford between 2010 and 2021, during which time he scored he made over 400 appearances and scored more than 100 goals in all competitions, while twice winning promotion from the Championship.

The striker then played for boyhood club Birmingham City in the Championship from 2021 until 2023.

His playing career then came to an end earlier this season after a brief spell with Forest Green Rovers, in which he was sacked after a six-game winless run while working as a player/manager of the League Two club.

Having moved away from a football career for the time being, Deeney is now instead set to try his hand at another sport.

Deeney set for UK Open Pool Championship wild card

Following his departure from Forest Green back in January, Deeney is yet to return to a role in football, although he has worked as a pundit on Sky Sports' EFL coverage.

Now though, he is set to return to sporting action himself, with an entry into Pool's UK Open.

The former striker is set to compete in the tournament as a wildcard, and will be part of a 128-man field looking to win a $30,000 prize for lifting the title.

However, it seems Deeney is understandably not looking quite as far as that just yet. Outlining his aims for his run in the tournament, the former Watford and Birmingham man told Sky Sports:

"The aim is to go there and not embarrass myself to be honest, but also be humble enough and vulnerable enough to know these guys have been doing it for years.

"You can't just put a few months' worth of genuine training into it and a lot of years of odd playing - sometimes with a beer in hand as well - and expect to beat these guys.

"But I know as soon as I'm involved in anything, my competitive edge will come flowing through anyways. I'll give it a good go.

"To be limited in my ability and a lot of people expecting the world of me…I'm quite used to that! My end goal for this is to push the sport forward as much as I possibly can."

The tournament, which is played in the nineball format of the game, will be held at the Telford International Centre.

It is scheduled to begin on Tuesday 7th May, with the final set to be held six days later on Sunday 12th May.

This is the third edition of the event, which started in 2022 and has previously been won by World Champions Joshua Filler and Eklent Kaci.

An eye-catching move for Deeney

As Deeney seemingly hopes, you imagine that his entry into this tournament could generate a considerable amount of interest for the sport of Pool.

Of course, he is far from the first athlete to move into another sport, after finishing his time in the one he originally started out in.

However, Pool is a rather different sport in terms of its nature, when compared to football. There will therefore be some intrigue as to how Deeney gets on in this situation, particularly against some of the sport's very best.

Indeed, given he is a well known name within English football, there could be plenty of followers of the game who may tune in to see how he does, and in turn develop an interest in Pool as a sport in its own right.

That could certainly help to benefit the game in terms of bringing in greater viewership, and with it, more finances.

Of course, it will be a big ask for Deeney when he is up against players who have been competing at the very top level for most of their professional careers.