How much have you played football

[Gorton_Tubster]

I really miss playing, 56 yes old now and finally my playing days are over.

I started playing at school obvs, and with my mates when i was a kid, we had our own team and played different parts of the estate every evening it seemed!

Then played for East area which i got into through school (Gorton). Had a few trials with Manchester boys but was never part of the clique it seemed.

But then when I worked for barclays I played 11 a side for them against random other teams each week. Then five a side twice a week for probably twenty years, knackered my knees playing on plastic pitches, cruciate fucked but was still able to play after that.

I continued through my forties playing five a side and occasional full team matches but I was shit by then, couldn't keep up with the younger ones.

Finally last 5 or so years playing football with disabled people just to keep fit, and I could run rings around them, brilliant! (Joke)

Now though I can't play, no opportunity and too much pain. But from the age of 10 to now, probably 40 or so years of regular football, even if it was mostly five a side.

How much and what level have you guys played?

 

[KentBlue]

Pretty much the same. After school I still played regularly, but a cruciate ligament soon put paid to that. Still, I have some really happy memories from my playing days.

 

[AlexWilliamsGloves]

Played in Primary School and the cubs when i lived in England....but from when i moved to Belfast aged 10, i played rugby

 

[dickie davies]

Played as a kid for primary and secondary school
Pretty much stopped when I started work
Joined a team when I was mid 20's, which was an OK standard
Stopped again when in my early 30's
Got myself gym fit in my 40s, then played with my former team mates at power league
Stopped again because of injuries
Started again a year before covid with a group of over 30's (by this time I'm mid 50s)
Injured again, so retired

PS
Played as few 5 a sides with bluemooners and a couple of 11 a sides

 

[bluebaja]

Walking Football is your answer .....

 

[Paladin]

Aged 7, 8, used to go to watch City train in Wythenshawe Park. Played there most nights with my mates in the footy season, and cricket in the summer.

Played for junior school team, then occasionally for secondary school team.

Played twice on Saturday and also Sunday afternoon in my teens and twenties, all in Gtr Mcr leagues and also the Lancs Amateur League. Played also for work in the NALGO Cup. Liverpool based teams were always the hardest to compete with.

In my thirties I started refereeing, but continued playing midweek, mainly 11-a-side, but sometimes smaller sides.

Many of the teams I played for were set up by me, and I've been involved in football administration since I was 18.

Due to a hip injury, I've slowed down these last three winters, and I'm about to hand over running of my last group to others, after 24 years with them. My last game will be on 18 December. It could be my last game ever, aged 63. So that's around 55 years playing.

I now run to keep fit.

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

I remember summer holidays as a kid playing football for maybe 4 or 5 hours straight. Me and about 5 mates would head to a local collage that had an astro turf pitch and play till we were hungry and bored. And then do it the next day and the next.

Playing in a work 5 a side on a freezing winter night in my late 30s I dis my groin bad. Its never fully healed. If I play for any time now it goes.

 

[blueste41]

Hardly ever played and never liked doing so. Sports played with feet I'm not so good at, those with hands I'm very good at. For that reason Squash, Badminton, Table Tennis and in particular Tennis (I played for my county as a youngster) are my sports of choice. If I'm honest I think the contact element of Football put me off-I'm a bit nesh!

 

[Asa's left peg]

Started about 8/9 at junioir school team, Heald Place in Rusholme. Played 5 a side for a boys club run out of Holy Trinity and won the national competion. Then started Platt Villa with a few mates and got pushed out when older boys came in. Played 11 a side again from 19 when I played for Barclays International Bank as a 'ringer' and then a couple of Didsbury based teams in the Cheshire and Manchester League with a little success.

Stopped playing Sunday League about 32 and straight back to 5 a side and played with the same guys until having to stop at 56 (68 now). I miss it too.
Had to finish with a condition that wasn't helped by my heading the ball so much back in the day (I was good at that) and if I knew what I know now - I would probably do it all over again. Made friends, got jobs, kept fit - what's not to like (my cervical cord would beg to differ!)

 

[Semper aggressus]

I played 5 a side and 7 a side from the age of about 18 and continue to do so to this day (early 50s now).

I played 11 a side at university too, but being honest I was a bit shit. Not very technically gifted really, just a blocking defender.