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Ex-Premier League and EFL players ‘come out of retirement’ take part in the talkSPORT Trophy

A number of ex-Premier League and EFL players ‘come out of retirement’ to take part in the 2024 version of the ‘talkSPORT Trophy’.

Getting underway at 2:30pm on Thursday the 21st of March, Team Breakfast take on the talkSPORT All Stars with the game being shown live on YouTube.

Every year, talkSPORT reveals that its lineup of exceptional individuals will be participating in a live football match.

A group of former footballers and well-known faces will be lacing up their boots and joining the talkSPORT event, and you can see it play out in the video below…

Joining the line-up will be Dean Ashton, coming 15 years after an ankle injury ended his career aged 26.

The talkSPORT co-commentator will participate in a match as part of the All Stars team, led by Darren Bent.

He said that a conversation with talkSPORT host and Alan Pardew, who is coaching the All Stars, persuaded him to make a return to the field.

In an interview, he said that the last time he wore football boots was approximately a decade ago during Mark Noble’s testimonial in 2016.

He added that it is uncommon for him to play football nowadays, but when Pardew asked him to join the team, he couldn’t refuse the opportunity.

“I still owe him for buying me for West Ham [for £7million], so I’m ready.”

Ashton first suffered an serious injury in 2006 when he broke his ankle during England training, causing him to sit out the entire 2006/07 season.

And then in the season after, he managed to score ten goals in the Premier League for the Hammers, leading to his only appearance for the Three Lions in a 3-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago.

But unfortunately, he was never able to fully recover from his ankle injury, and that led to to his retirement in December 2009.

Ashton has said that that he has no idea how his body is going to react to him playing again: “I haven’t got a joint so there’s no pain there to be had, it’s just very, very stiff.

“So we’ll see how I get about. If they put me on the wings against one of the quick boys, [Gabby] Agbonlahor or [Jermaine] Pennant, I’ve got no chance.”

DEAN ASHTON’S CAREER:

Youth career
Stoke City
–2005 – Crewe Alexandra

Senior career
2000–2005 – Crewe Alexandra – 177 games (74 goals)
2005–2006 – Norwich City – 46 games (18 goals)
2006–2009 – West Ham United – 56 games (19 goals)
Total – 279 games (111 goals)

International career
2001 – England U17 – 1 game (1 goal)
2001–2002 – England U19 – 5 games (5 goals)
2002 – England U20 – 2 games (0 goals)
2004–2005 – England U21 – 9 games (4 goals)
2008 – England – 1 game (0 goals)

Ashton warned Team Breakfast goalkeeper Ian ‘The Moose’ Abrahams, saying: “I’ve heard if you’re lacking in confidence, then this will definitely be the best thing to do.

“To face Ian Abrahams in goal, that will certainly get my confidence back up. I’m all about power with my shots.

“So he’s probably better just to dive out of the way than he is to get hit by one of my shots. That would be my advice for him.”

Ashton does hope that he can roll back the years in an attempt to recreate the stunning overhead kick goal of his like he did away at Manchester United back in 2008 or even the scissor kick in Noble’s testimonial.

He added: “The problem is, it’s like a flinch mode for me, I’ve got no control over it.

“If it’s there to be done then I can’t help myself, it doesn’t matter if it’s 3G or on a concrete car park, it just is an automatic flinch.

“If the ball arrives at the right height, I’ll end up taking it on and suffering the consequences.”

He told Sportsmail back in 2019 about his retirement: ‘There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think about still wanting to play and what ifs.

‘I never got to actually get to the end of my career and think I’ve given it everything. I’ll always have that.

‘I’ve always got a reminder with my leg too. My life’s never going to be the same, not only in terms of football but also what I can do in my day to day life. That’s always a reminder.

‘Everyone I ever speak to that loves football wants to talk about what happened and how sad it was. You never forget it.

‘I didn’t watch football for about two years because I was too bitter and twisted to.

‘I was thinking Andy Carroll got a move to Liverpool and I felt as though I was doing better than him when I retired.

‘You look at other players that you know. Some players don’t even like football, it’s just a job to them. They just do it. They don’t give their all. It’s hard to watch them play and have a good career.

‘That’s a natural feeling for any player who had to finish early. If you’re not bitter that’d be strange. There’s nothing wrong with feeling like that. It was just too difficult.

‘It’s torturous. You are known as Dean the footballer, you are not known as Dean the normal person who loves football and this is his job. That’s what you’re seen as.

‘If you can’t do that, you feel pressure from family and friends who come and support you all the time, from the club because they’re paying your wages, have maybe put a huge transfer fee on you, from the players, especially if you’re a key part of the squad and the team isn’t doing well.

‘The big one is the supporters. Everywhere you go you’re asked about it and you just want to repay the faith by going out and producing and you’re not able to do that.

‘You feel very inferior and that shouldn’t be the case – it is effectively a job and something you enjoy doing, and if you can’t do it, that’s what’s really difficult.’ Ashton said about his time at Norwich. A psychologist would visit to speak to them and in his view, would talk ‘really really well’. In that environment, though, it had been seen as ‘a bit of a joke’.

‘It was seen as a weakness and you wouldn’t want to show any weakness, certainly to the coaching staff because you wanted to play every week.

‘That is changing – managers are changing in terms of their mindset. The pressures are exactly the same. Hopefully players have that different outlook because they need to.

‘Looking back, in hindsight, I probably should have spoken to a psychologist a bit more frequently. That could have at least helped me.’

Questioned what advice he would give them, he said: ‘It’s really difficult. I would say enjoy every minute, but players cannot be told.

‘To make it you have to be selfish, you have to be single-minded, you have to be ruthless.

‘For me to turn around and say do your studies and make sure you look after yourself financially, it is difficult for players to take it on board because all they think about is next Saturday.

‘Not what might happen in two weeks if you were to break your ankle and your career is ended next year.

‘You just can’t think about it that way. You should, but you don’t. It takes such a focus to even make it, people don’t dare to think about what could happen.

‘I wish they would, because there are so many cases out there where it hasn’t quite gone the right way and you then rely on education, financial advice, to build your next career.’

He may never have finished the upward curve of his career but existence is clearly getting better – even if the injury will always hang over him. ‘I don’t have a bad life’, he adds. ‘That’s what I always hark back to. I have a wife, kids, play golf, watch the football, am a pundit, give my opinion.

‘But there’s always going to be that side of it. You can never forget it.

‘There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t wish I could still play. I absolutely love it. If I said to anybody that if tomorrow they could never do the thing they love the most, that is just hard.’

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