Most football supporters will know stories about players that have made their way up through the leagues before making it in the top-flight. Examples like Jamie Vardy will spring to mind, who was a lower league player during the start of his career and ended up winning the Premier League with Leicester City in the 2015-2016 season.
That sense of making your way up through the divisions makes sense, but does it also happen that players head down through them? How often do footballers tend to start life in the Premier League and end their career in League Two or even playing non-league football before they retire?
The Big Names Don’t Tend to do It
The reality of the journey for most footballers is that they strive to be with a top club but then struggle to walk away from football altogether. As a result, if they fail to become a big name with the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester United then they will inevitably find that they end up at clubs lower down the pyramid before they retire. The footballers that don’t tend to do that, though, are the big names.
When Steven Gerrard’s time as a top-level player was reaching its conclusion, he left Liverpool for Major League Soccer in the United States of America rather than taking up a position playing in the Championship or lower.
Six years ago today, Steven Gerrard scored his first MLS goal in his debut for LA Galaxy 🪐pic.twitter.com/I7LLHC3MtY
— GOAL (@goal) July 17, 2021
As Wayne Rooney’s career began to wane, no pun intended, he did drop the standard of football that he was playing, but only by returning to Everton from Manchester United. He then also ended up in America and the MLS. He did drop down the divisions by going to Derby County, but that was because the Rams offered him a player-manager role rather than him feeling as though he needed to play in the Championship.
It would be untrue to suggest that no big-name player has ever dropped down the divisions, but the reality is that those that made it with the biggest clubs have tended to retire when there or else take a big-money job in the likes of America.
Lesser-Lights Will Drop Down to Keep Playing
The truth of the matter is that the Premier League a cut-throat industry. Whether it is managers not quite cutting it and being given their marching orders or players who have out-lived their usefulness, the English top-flight is a division in which only the best of the best tend to make it. What that means is that some players who don’t make it at the bigger clubs will chose to drop down the divisions in order to be able to keep playing.
Stewart Downing, for example, played for Middlesbrough and Aston Villa before earning a transfer to Liverpool. He failed to make it at Anfield, however, and left to play for West Ham United.
#OnThisBoroDay – 2002: Stewart Downing, the best #Boro born talent since WW2, makes his debut in a 1-0 loss at Ipswich (17 yrs 276 days. Since then over 700 games, FA, League & UEFA Cup finals, 35 Eng caps, played at World Cup & Euros. Laser-guided left peg through a golden age. pic.twitter.com/XK1a70EaHj
— anthony vickers (@untypicalboro) April 24, 2024
The Hammers were in the Premier League at the time, but when things didn’t work out for him there he ended up transferring back to Middlesbrough, who were in the Championship at the time. Although they were pushing for promotion, it was a drop down for the player, keen to carry on playing his football as best he could.
He left Middlesbrough for another Championship side in Blackburn Rovers before retiring in the August of 2021. His is a good example of a player who was never quite good enough for Liverpool but who also didn’t want to walk away from it altogether, therefore transfer down the leagues.
Wrexham – The Hollywood Club
Sometimes, the story is too good for some players to resist. That can probably best be seen in what happened at the Welsh club Wrexham in a story that will now be known by millions. Formed in 1864 and spending most of its history bobbling around the lower divisions, the Robins were bought in 2020 by American actor Rob McElhenney and Canadian film star Ryan Reynolds.
They began making a documentary series called Welcome to Wrexham, which was shown on Disney Plus and lead to the club gaining a worldwide fanbase. That was somewhat remarkable, considering the club was in the fifth tier at the time.
Such was the nature of the situation that the club began to gain the sort of publicity that was normally reserved for Premier League sides. The actors were also not reluctant to ‘splash the cash’, which resulted in them signing some big-name players. Ben Foster had earned England caps during his time as a goalkeeper, being on the books of teams like Manchester United, Watford and West Bromwich Albion.
In 2023, as Wrexham were pushing to gain promotion, he came out of retirement in order to help the Robins win the National League title before promptly retiring again, having been caught up in the excitement of the story.
Another player who chose to swap his life playing in the Football League for some non-league playing time was Paul Mullin. Born in Merseyside, Mullin spent his youth playing for both Everton and Liverpool before transferring to Huddersfield Town. He wasn’t really good enough for any of them, resulting in the major part of his career playing for the likes of Morecambe, Swindon Town and Tranmere Rovers. He was playing for Cambridge United in the 2020-2021 season, helping them gain promotion to League One.
Rather than enjoy the spoils of that, however, Mullin chose to leave in order to sign for non-league Wrexham.
@cbssportsgolazo Wrexham will be celebrating all summer. 😤 #wrexham #wrexhamafc #paulmullin (Via @wrexham_afc)
It is entirely fair to say that it was a brilliant move for Mullin. Thanks to the popularity of Welcome to Wrexham, he became one of the best-known names in non-league and ended up playing in League One anyway when the Welsh club gained promotion. He was the club’s highest scorer when it gained promotion as the champions of League Two, and again as they were promoted into League One.
Although his story is obviously a very specific one, along with other big-name players who decided to drop down the divisions in order to help Wrexham, it is worth pointing out that that is the sort of thing that is needed to persuade players to transfer down rather than up.
