Lockdown Chat: Mick Quinn

"Stimulating the Mind is Key to Engagement"

Mick Quinn

Two years on from my transition from professional football to Morgan Stanley, I am continuing to explore ideas on how best I can give back and how, as a sporting collective, we can support current athletes with education opportunities and co-existing career paths. As such, I reached out to ex-premier league legend, horse racing enthusiast, and friend, Mick Quinn, during Lockdown to get his thoughts on how the idea of education and a career along side sport has changed since his time in football.  

Mick is best known for his time as a Professional Footballer in England's Top League, as well as for Racehorse Training and Punditry. Mick was prolific in-front of goal and even Erling Haaland could only equal, not better, Mick's record of 10 goals in his first 6 Premier League games! 

Reflecting on his transition from footballer and pundit to race horse trainer, Mick admits that he never considered another career, or form of education, until the end of his time playing football. 

“In football there was a Peter Pan mentality. You get a few quid, have a drink [and believe you can] just continue to play football” 

He suggested this could be exasperated by the modern wages for young pro’s at the top level, and worries this will impact their willingness to look at careers alongside or beyond football. 

“Outside of football it can be a lonely place”

Mick mentioned how life outside of football can be a lonely place. Moving clubs can mean leaving friends and family behind and living alone in a different part of the world. We discussed periods in our careers where we lived away from home and noted the impact this would have had on our well-being, were it not for the fact we were in training every day. If you take the career away, without a support system or back up in place, there is a risk for a player to turn to drink or drugs. 

“Players need to find something that stimulates them… I worked harder in horse racing than I did in football”

During the 86/87 season at Portsmouth FC Mick was introduced to horse race ownership by teammate, Mick Channon. Channon was retiring to pursue a career in race horse training with Quinn actually owning his first 2 year old winner. Post this introduction Quinn talks of having two passions in his life; football and horse racing.

This is the basis for the key takeaway from our chat, we need to offer enough opportunities so that players can find something that stimulates them enough to take action. Mick acknowledges he may have been lucky to find his passion outside of football and I worry that, if left to chance, many players will not be so fortunate.

Having been in dressing rooms, I acknowledge that your peers have the greatest potential to influence your decisions and so I want to get as many current and ex-pro’s as possible talking about careers alongside football. The more conversations that are had the greater chance we have of supporting those still playing the game.