Dean Ashton, Paul Lake, Marco van Basten and the players who retired too
soon
Football can be cruel, as these players will testify
View the full story here: Talksport
A news article on 2011-10-19 15:21:21 from: Talksport
This news item has been reproduced from today's media.
Some time ago, a friend and I were discussing youth power in football and how an academy brings
out talent time and again. I thought this would be an interesting topic to write on though it has
been thrown around quite a bit in the blogosphere already. But, given that it's international
weekend, Phil Jones has been prompted as a future England captain, and Jack Wilshere is causing
people the age of his Dad sweat over him, it sounds appropriate to devote something to the Next
Gen.
After Wayne Rooney reminded us all that he used to be a fairly decent professional footballer
with his derby day belter against Manchester City last Saturday, the received (Sky Sports-infused)
wisdom seems to be that the decidedly off-colour striker's effort was, without need for second
thought, the greatest overhead kick ever scored by anyone, anywhere, ever.
By Chris Wright
The Football Association have agreed an out-of-court settlement with former West Ham striker
Dean Ashton over the injury he sustained during an England training session in the summer of 2006
that eventually forced him to retire from the game altogether two-and-a-half years later, aged just
26, in December of 2009.
