Life After Football: Paul Lake

In partnership with

Manchester City F.C.

·6 de marzo de 2025

Life After Football: Paul Lake

As we build towards our new CITY+ documentary 'Life After Football', we focus on the five main protagonists featured in this must-watch City Studios masterpiece...

We begin with former City captain Paul Lake, who recalls what was a heart-breaking end to his career in City - and how he dealt with the fallout...

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COMING TO TERMS

Aged only 21, his career was effectively ended when he ruptured his ACL against Aston Villa at Maine Road.

After a year out, he returned to action only to suffer the same injury again away to Middlesbrough – he would never play again.

Lake was a magnificent footballer, able to play in several positions with equal effect and was a class act who was undoubtedly on his way to becoming a Manchester City and England legend.

Interviewed by Granada TV’s Kick Off football show, Lake said: “It’s a dream for any player to go to a World Cup. You see it on TV and it's all the glamour, you think, I'd love to be there, that type of thing.”

But in Life After Football, Lake explains how his destiny would take him down a different path.

“I played regularly for the Under-18s, and we won the league,” he recalled.

“We won the FA Youth Cup. I made my debut for City when I was a 17 year-old.

“I became captain of Manchester City aged 21, so my trajectory was going in that direction.

“I had everything, it was looking so exciting for me, and I was so confident. I could have played in any position, I just felt as though I could do anything.

“The confidence was there, and I was so excited, and I couldn't wait to start the season.”

Lake’s star was rising, and he was in line to be included in Bobby Robson’s 1990 England World Cup squad as well as penning a five-year contract with City.

It seemed nothing could stop him fulfilling his destiny and perhaps going on to become one of the Blues’ greatest players in the process – a dream for a youngster who bled sky blue.

“So I’d made it as the captain. I had the new England manager come to watch me play against Aston Villa. I was playing really, really well - but then went into an innocuous challenge and I ruptured my anterior cruciate ligament.

“At the time, I was thinking it was just a minor set-back, but that was the start of all my problems.

“We talk about having that kind of sliding doors moment where suddenly your career changes, literally overnight.”

Lake battled on until the 1995/96 season, attempting to find a way back to fitness, but the medical procedures at the time were a world away from the treatment players get today and he officially retired still aged only 25.

It was devastating to say the least.

“I’ve gone from being, in my eyes, a somebody to being a nobody,” says Lake.

“My identity was just literally changed completely, and there’s that recognition that you're never going to have that adulation again.

“During that period of time, I had no life experience of anything else. So I didn't know what was coming next. And I was fearful.”

In Life After Football, Lake chats with City youngster Jacob Wright, who suffered a similar injury, about how treatment of injuries and rehabilitation has changed so much for the better.

Lake is today a qualified psychotherapeutic counsellor, helping athletes deal with pressures and mental toll sport can sometimes bring.

A regular legend of matchday hospitality, he remains a popular figure among City fans.

“My name is around the stadium in the Hall of Fame, which I'm really proud of,” he says.

“So whether it's one game for Manchester City or whether it's 500, you have to think you’ve done something that millions of people will never be able to do.

“Now, as a player care consultant, we're supporting the boys that don't make it, to be able to make a career for themselves in whatever field they decide to turn their hand to.”

Life After Football will be available from today at 18:00 (UK) via a CITY+ subscription.