What Happened to Former Tottenham Midfielder David Bentley - talk2soccer

Blog

What Happened to Former Tottenham Midfielder David Bentley

11 months ago
Add Comment
by talk2soccer


In brief
Despite being one of the most talented young football players in England, David Bentley retired before turning thirty.
Bentley lost interest in football after discovering that the game was quite different from what he had anticipated.
Since hanging up his boots, the enormous former professional has had quite the ride.
Since hanging up his boots in 2014, David Bentley, a former Tottenham and England midfielder, has had quite the life. He terminated his professional career at the age of just 29.



“I can picture David playing for the greatest teams in the world, but I have played with so many talented players and won the Champions League at Bayern Munich.” In March 2008, Roque Santa Cruz said these things about Bentley, his teammate at Blackburn Rovers at the time, who started his career at Arsenal.


Bentley, who was 23 at the time, appeared destined for greater things and, a few months later, finalised a £15 million transfer to Tottenham. However, the gifted winger, who won seven caps for England overall, started to lose interest in the game when he was at Spurs.



Bentley lost favour following his most notorious moment in his career, which involved dousing manager Harry Redknapp with a bucket of water on live television after Tottenham qualified for the Champions League. He went on to play on loan at Birmingham City, West Ham, FC Rostov of Russia, and Blackburn before declaring his retirement in 2014 at the age of just 29.




In a 2020 interview with The Athletic, Bentley cited the manager’s incident as the reason why his demise at White Hart Lane:


“You see, I hardly played again after getting a bucket over my head during that season (2009–10).”

David Bentley’s current location
After football, the former Spurs player achieved success.

Since hanging up his boots ten years ago, the retired Premier League football player has been on a journey. Bentley stated to The Athletic:

“Where did it all go wrong?” is what people want to concentrate on. However, it’s “Where did it go right?” for me.

“I could still be a football player at my age, but I couldn’t imagine still playing now,” he added. Despite not playing for seven years, I’ve accomplished a lot. I’ve developed enterprises and spent three years living in Spain with my family. Being with my kids every day has been so much fun.

“I can’t imagine now, still going through the same routines, playing until I’m heading towards 40,” the retired midfielder continued. “I bet you wish you were still playing,” people say, and I ask, “Why?” They say, “Because of loads of money.” Because that’s what we’re taught. However, I now have more money than I did at the beginning. I’ll be okay if I have £100. Football was something I enjoyed, but it eventually wore thin.

In order to become more involved with the business, Bentley relocated to Marbella and went on to oversee the Sala group, which includes eateries and bars in Gibraltar and Spain.

Later, he moved back to the UK and helped manage a number of businesses, including Sala, which included the Stansted-based custom flooring manufacturer GFF Bentley and Howell. Bentley clarified: “Being associated with businesses has taught me a lot. With my current job, each day is unique. It’s quite thrilling. Although football provides solace, it ultimately lacked excitement.

Bentley was let down by football.
Expectations were not met by reality.

Bentley feels that modern football players are too robotic and that the game lacks trailblazers like Paul Gascoigne of England. He stated:

“My passion for Paul Gascoigne and football stemmed from my upbringing during Euro ’96 and Italy ’90. That was it after that. I intended to play football. That was it, “bang,” when I was five years old. After seeing all of that, you believe that I want to be involved—I want to sit in the dentist’s chair! What you wanted to be a part of was that spirit. However, the truth was disappointing.

He went on: “I think football is an art form; it’s a creative art form that you can express with your natural ability and maximise with the commitment to staying fit.” However, I believe that when it became a job, things changed.

It was the life of a rock star. You play football every day and get paid for it. It was amazing. Then it became… I realised halfway through my career that this was a job. It was still like a rock star taking the stage and singing just naturally, even if you used to take it seriously. However, it becomes too regimented and robotic if the managers are giving them precise instructions on how to sing. That spontaneous, maverick kind of expression is something I’d like to see return to the game a little bit.

Bentley Planned to Help Young Players

He feels they could use financial help

In addition to his commercial pursuits, Bentley has previously stated that he wants to assist young football players who have had their money wasted because it has been mishandled and misrepresented. The former England player said:

According to The Mirror, Bentley stated in 2018 that “players are mismanaged, and they don’t have the large amounts of money people think they have.” Football players rank far lower on the list of people who are wealthy worldwide. They only have ten years to earn their money, and since they are frequently misrepresented, I would like to assist players with this.

Given the outrageous salaries that young football players receive in the current game, he has a point. According to Bentley, “it’s because they don’t know how to manage money.” All football players are focused on becoming successful, therefore I tell people that my college years were my professional football years.

Many players don’t consider the fact that the money they make from playing must last them until they are around 80 years old. Considering how their salaries average out over the length of their lifetimes, they are spending more than they ought to. They must be appropriately handled, adopt a personal perspective, and maintain financial restraint,” he added.

After turning 40 in August 2024, Bentley appears to have no regrets about his life decisions: “I look back on my life and, hopefully, I’m only about halfway through it, and I think it’s been good.” It has been an incredible journey. In fact, video of Bentley dancing at the Cheltenham Festival in March 2025 demonstrates that this common man is still making sure to enjoy life to the fullest.

 



xz

You may also like

About the author

talk2soccer

View all posts

Leave a Comment