Hidetoshi Nakata - Aged 29
Considered one of the best players to come out of Asia, Nakata will be best remembered for appearing in some of the best football adverts for Nike during the build up to the Japan/Korea World Cup. He was also a pretty handy footballer spending the majority of his career in Italy playing for a few teams including Roma, Parma and Fiorentina and a brief spell in England for Bolton Wanderers. After racking up 77 caps for Japan he decided enough was enough after the 2006 World Cup stating that he was no longer enjoying playing football. He now plies his trade as a model.
David Bentley - Aged 29
At one point David Bentley looked like her had the world at his feet. After starting his career at Arsenal he moved on to Blackburn and The Gunners big rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Then after spending some time out on loan at Birmingham and West Ham, Bentley went on to be the first English player to play in the Russian Premier League during a spell at FC Rostov. In 2014 after a year without a club Bentley decided that he had fallen out of love with game and after 7 England caps called time on his professional career. He went on to co-own a restaurant in Marbella and invest in a restaurant in London with Raheem Sterling and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Espen Baardsen - Aged 25
The American born Norwegian goalkeeper decided that he was bored with the game after playing in the Premier League and going to the World Cup. Despite having a promising career and playing over 60 premier league games during his short career he decided that he wanted to go traveling. Now he works in Asset Management and is a regular on Business television network CNBC.
Shane Supple - Aged 22
The republic of Ireland youth international decided that he no longer wanted to play football as he felt he was only doing it to make other people happy. At the age of 22 he left Ipswich town to pursue a career playing Gaelic Football for the Dublin County Team. He has since returned to Football joining Bohemians in 2016 and has so far made 5 appearances.
Peter Knowles - Aged 24
After going out to Kansas to play in a pre-season tournament aimed at increasing the interest in Football in America, Knowles became a Jehovahs Witness. Upon his return to England he was quoted saying "I shall continue playing football for the time being but I have lost my ambition. Though I still do my best on the field I need more time to learn about the Bible and may give up football." After playing his final game for Wolves in the 1969/70 season he walked away from the game. The oddest part was he remained contracted to the club for the next 12 years in the hope that he would one day return and pull on the Wolverhampton Wanders kit again. It wasn't until 1982 that then manager Graham Hawkins accepted that he wasn't coming back.
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