A place in elite football is a dream many youngsters chase, yet only a few ever experience the reality of life at the top.
For some, reaching that level confirms everything they ever hoped for. For others, it reveals an entirely different picture—one that ultimately pushes them toward a new path.
For Han Willhoft-King, once regarded as one of the brightest prospects coming through English football, that journey led him away from the pitch entirely.
At just 19 years old, and after stints at Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, he has stepped away from the sport to pursue a law degree at Oxford University.
It is an extraordinary career shift for a teenager who only months earlier seemed set for a professional future.
Han Willhoft-King had initially sought a balance between academics and sport.
He accepted a short-term contract with FC Cincinnati 2, a move designed to keep his footballing ambitions alive while preparing for life at Oxford.
Things changed, however, when Manchester City contacted him in July 2024, offering him the chance to join their setup—an opportunity few players would pass up.
“At that point, the plan was still to go pro and I felt like I’d always regret it if I didn’t join Man City,” Han Willhoft-King told The Guardian. “I would always say: ‘What if I’d taken that chance?’”
That chance thrust him into an environment considered one of the most technically demanding and competitive in the world.
Not only was he regularly involved with City’s under-21 squad, but he also found himself stepping into first-team sessions alongside the global stars who have defined the club’s era of dominance. For a teenager still shaping his game, it was an awe-inspiring experience.
“Tottenham is a good team but Man City is another level. De Bruyne, Haaland … these are the best players in the world. But you also realise they are normal people.
“They have a bit of banter, they call each other out for making mistakes. And seeing Pep … he is just so, so animated. The energy he brings, the hand gestures, raising his voice. It’s actually pretty remarkable.”
Training with a squad stacked with world-class talent sounds glamorous from the outside. But for Han Willhoft-King, there was a vastly different reality behind the scenes—one that gradually chipped away at his enjoyment of the game.
Behind the scenes of elite football
The midfielder explains that while working with the first team offered unforgettable moments, it also exposed him to a workload and intensity he had not experienced before.
The sessions, particularly those focused on pressing drills, were relentless.
Often, he was tasked with chasing players whose technical sharpness made them almost impossible to dispossess.
“You would just be pressing,” he said. “We would be running after the ball like dogs for half an hour, 60 minutes. It’s not a very pleasant experience, especially when you are trying to press De Bruyne or Gündogan or Foden. You can’t get near them, so the feeling of not wanting to do this overcomes being starstruck.”
It was in these moments of exhaustion—running, chasing, and struggling to get close to players operating several layers above his level—that doubts began to form.
Was this environment, intense and often draining, the one he truly wanted to spend his life in?
Beyond the heavy physical demand, Han Willhoft-King also found himself questioning the rhythm of daily life in football.
The long hours with little variation, the routine that many players learn to tolerate, left him feeling disconnected from who he wanted to be.
“I wasn’t enjoying it. I don’t know what it was, maybe the environment. I’m bored often, as well. You’d train, you’d come home and you wouldn’t really do anything.
“If you contrast it to now … I’m struggling to find hours in the day. I’m either studying, going out with friends, playing for the university first team, also my college.
“I always felt understimulated in football. Don’t get me wrong. I still loved it. But I always felt I could be doing more. I was wasting hours of the day.
“I needed something different and Oxford excited me; the people, too. I guess that’s the reason. Injuries were a big factor but that’s the easy answer. I felt I needed something a bit more… mainly intellectually, which sounds quite pretentious. But, yeah.”
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The idea of long-term fulfilment also weighed heavily on him. Though lower-league football careers can be financially rewarding, they are often unpredictable, short, and physically taxing.
The prospect of a decade or more in that environment did not convince him.
“Say I had a career in League One or the Championship… you make good money. But how much would I enjoy it? In my head I wasn’t sure.
Also, best-case scenario – you’ll play for 10, 15 years and after that, what? I thought going to university would provide a platform for me to do something at least for longer than the next 10 to 15 years. So, it’s a bit of a long-term thing, as well.”
Willhoft-King’s decision puts him among a small but growing number of young athletes choosing education and long-term development over the narrow—and often uncertain—path of professional sport.
It is a move that challenges the long-held assumption that every talented young player must relentlessly pursue a career in football, even if it comes at the expense of intellectual or personal growth.
