22 June 2022
Conor moves on – A decade since footballing dream heartbreak
Conor O’Sullivan looks back over the past ten years and talks about how he was released from a professional football career with, Southampton FC and his career today.
When Manchester United defender Luke Shaw smashed in England’s goal in the final of the Euros last summer, for one watching fan the moment had extra significance.
Sitting in the crowd that day was Conor O’Sullivan, who this year marks a decade since being released from a professional football career with, Southampton FC.
The link? Because aged just 18, his future with that club had been scuppered by the potential of his competitor for the senior team’s left back position. A certain Luke Shaw was coming through the ranks and for Conor, this meant saying goodbye to the club where he hoped his footballing dreams would be fulfilled.
Now, 10 years later, Conor has forged a career with accountancy firm Haines Watts and looks back philosophically on what might have been.
Many ex-footballers, either at the end of their careers or those who didn’t quite make the professional ranks, struggle to succeed in the workplace. Fortunately for Conor the disappointment of release, while seeing fellow academy players like Luke Shaw, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and James Ward-Prowse become household names, has been tempered by a positive attitude towards life and work, despite the initial anguish.
“It was heartbreak at the time,” he says. “I’d never experienced anything like it and I doubt I ever will again. Football was my love, my obsession.
“I was playing five days a week, living in Southampton, mixing with talented players, earning money and looking at a first professional contract of about £40k a year. Then suddenly, it was over and I had to try and find a club elsewhere.”
After a few more years of trials and tribulations, with clubs across England and a season at the Nike Academy based at Loughborough University, injury and a lack of opportunity made Conor accept the reality that the dream was over.
Back in Bristol, living with mum and dad in Westbury-on-Trym and Whitchurch, Conor’s first job outside football was labelling discounted products at the Staple Hill branch of Tesco.
But whereas other ex-footballers might have commiserated with themselves, Conor dusted himself down and sought career advice. He’d missed three years of schooling and, given his interest in finance and the ability to achieve qualifications while working, an advisor suggested accountancy as an option.
Step one was an apprenticeship at contract furniture firm Furnished Homes, in Yate, looking after sales invoices, bank reconciliations and payroll while starting AAT qualifications.
Next up, a move to Acklands in Cotham for his first taste of life in an accountancy practice. The company was acquired by Haines Watts in August 2016. Since then Conor has achieved full Chartered ACA status while working. Today, he’s a manager at the SME specialist.
“I’ve done pretty well,” he says now. “I could have taken the disappointment of being released and gone down a different path. But I never wanted to be resentful or bitter. Accountancy has given me a career which I once thought I would never have, so I’m really grateful.”
In a further show of positivity, Conor is keen to use his experiences as a constructive force not only for himself but also for others.
“I still think the football world is one I can be involved in. I’m interested in being a source of accounting knowledge and services for former colleagues at the academies I’ve played with, as well as their networks of fellow professionals.
“And I’d also like to help other former players – either those released early from contracts or those at the end of their careers – to realise that there are career paths outside football. That might be accounting, or other professions. If you believe, you can achieve.”
Conor still plays local club football. It’s a far cry from the final of the Euros at Wembley last summer. But he’s in a good place.
Author
Conor O'Sullivan
Director
