David Bentley retires at 29 in tears

A tearful David Bentley has announced his retirement at the age of just 29.



England winger Bentley joined Tottenham for £15 million from Blackburn Rovers and never produced the goods on a regular basis. At the time he was thought to be the successor to David Beckham on the right hand side for England but it all went wrong and he only ended up with 7 caps.

He hung around at Tottenham rather than take a wage cut to go and play football which in the end cost him his career.

He bought a bar and restaurant in Spain and seemed more interested in that that he did forcing his way into the Tottenham side.

“I’ve given up football. I’ve taken the decision to take my life in a different direction.

“I’ve just had little baby twins, three months old, and I’ve got a little four-year-old and I want to focus on that. My love for the game went a little bit and I didn’t want to carry on just for the fact of paying me money.

“It’s not really ever been an option for me to do that. I’m involved in a restaurant in Spain and we’re bringing it to the UK, so there is a lot of work there.

“I enjoyed every minute of it and had a smile on my face every day but I don’t want to carry on taking my family to a place we really don’t want to be. Life’s too short to do that.

“I have no regrets. I loved every minute of playing but the game has changed. When I first started it was the enjoyment, going in to work every day was brilliant.

“Now it’s a little bit robotic, the social media side of it, the money that has come into the game. I hate to say it, but it’s made it boring and predictable – calculated – and to go and sign another three or four years into that wasn’t really an option for me.”

He tried to resurrect his career by going on loan to Birmingham City, West Ham United, Rostov (Russia) and back to Blackburn Rovers but he couldn't recapture anything like his previous form.

He will go down as a wasted talent.

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