‘I used to play for Brighton & Hove Albion – now I’m going to turn out to be a practice driver’
A former Brighton & Hove Albion football who made almost 150 appearances for the Premier League club has now switched careers and is planning to become a train driver
Jake Robinson, once the youngest ever goalscorer for Brighton and Hove Albion, has made headlines with his post-football career.
The 38-year-old, who now plays at county level with Newhaven, has announced he’s three months into a train driver apprenticeship with Southern Rail. The Brighton-born player started his career with the Seagulls, making 148 appearances and scoring 22 goals between 2003 and 2009.
After leaving Brighton, Robinson became a prolific scorer at non-league level. However, even during his time with the Seagulls, he confessed that his football earnings wouldn’t be enough to retire on.
“The long and short of it is around my early 20s I realised that I was never going to be able to retire [with the money] from playing football,” he revealed to BBC Radio Sussex. Despite his teenage dreams of cashing in millions and playing for England, reality struck Robinson early in his career.
“As much as 16-year-old me thought that was going to happen that I’d make millions and play for England, the reality was that one day I was going to have to get a job. When I left Brighton and moved up to Shrewsbury at 22 I was starting to move down the leagues a bit already and the money never quite went to the level it needed to if that was going to be my goal,” reports the Mirror.
Robinson reminisced about his illustrious career and the physical toll it took as he advanced in age: “The further I got into my career and the older I got and the more everything started to ache a bit, I started to give some serious thought about what I wanted to do.”
He proudly revisited his early success, mentioning how he kicked off his tenure at Brighton by becoming their youngest scorer against Forest Green Rovers in 2003. “I was 16 years 355 days, I’ll never forget that, it was one of the best moments of my career,” he shared.
The local hero expressed joy over his record: “As someone who came through the centre of excellence at Brighton, was born as a local lad, and to get into the first team that young and get a goal and still hold that record, I bring it up whenever I possibly can.” With an eye on the future, Robinson credited his father for inspiring his career transition.
“The person I am I like to do a lot of research and I looked into careers I could possibly do and things that had transferable skills. By chance my dad who works at Brighton station told me they were advertising for trainee train drivers and the more I looked into it I thought it would suit me.”
Only three months into his new role, the former striker expressed his enthusiasm for the new chapter in his life: “There’s lots to learn, I’ve had to learn how to learn again, It’s been more than 20 years since I was at school. It’s a totally new career for me and I’m really enjoying it.”
