A FORMER Premier League prospectus calls for more support for young athletes.
Matthew Briggs was once a promising rising star in England. He made his top-flight debut for Fulham in 2007.
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Briggs, 33, became the Premier League’s youngest-ever player when he replaced Mortiz Volz in the 3-1 defeat to Middlesborough.
The left-back held the record for 16 years and 65 days until Harvey Elliot made his Prem debut 12 years later at the age of 16 years and 30 days.
However, Briggs failed to break through at Craven Cottage and spent four seasons away from the club on loan.
In 2014 he left the club for Millwall, but only made 12 appearances for the club.
He joined Colchester and had a decent spell in which he made 65 appearances over three seasons.
Briggs then had spells with non-league teams, which included spells in Denmark before his last club Horsham.
He has now claimed there was not enough support for young athletes.
He told the BBC: “You know I didn’t know I wasn’t academic as a kid.
“So I didn’t apply myself at school and because I started too young.
“I just assumed I’m the next Wayne Rooney, I’m the next Theo Walcott.
“I did it, I don’t need school.
“So the way my career went, I didn’t do anything else.
“When I was told I had to retire and it wasn’t on my own terms, I panicked.
“I’m like, ‘Well, if I can’t play football, what am I going to do? How will I support myself? How am I going to take care of my family?’
“And I literally panicked and that’s all.
“I spoke to a close friend who is a life coach, I spoke to a therapist, the counselor, to try to resolve these things.
“Working on my next options. I want to stop this from happening to other young people.
“I needed to realize these things much sooner.”
Briggs retired from football in 2023, having also won 15 caps for Guyana.
He was also part of the team that competed in the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
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