FORMER Premier League star Stiliyan Petrov has revealed his football retirement was quite short-lived.
This is because he joined Jude Bellingham‘s dad in playing for a Sunday League team less than 18 months after his retirement due to his acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Stiliyan Petrov played over 200 times for Aston Villa
Former Aston Villa and Celtic midfielder Petrov, now 43, lifted the lid on why he opted to return to the sport despite only retiring shortly before.
He told FourFourTwo: “I loved it.
“I joined Wychall Wanderers when they were in the second tier of the Over-35s.
“We went up to the top level and bossed it for three years in a row.
“The boys weren’t happy with me because I put rules in place: we’d meet up for breakfast in the morning and I’d tell them not to drink the night before!”
The Bulgarian then revealed the “formidable” cast of characters he played alongside at the club.
He added: “We had a formidable side and great characters: Maik Taylor, David Busst, Mark Bellingham – Jude’s dad.
“It was all about the love of football.”
Petrov himself made over 450 appearances for Villa and Celtic before retiring in 2013.
And his team-mates at Wychall were no slouches either.
Taylor was a former goalkeeper for Northern Ireland, Fulham and Birmingham.
Former Coventry star Busst managed the side, having earned his UEFA coaching badges.
And Bellingham netted over 700 career goals to make him one of the highest scorers in the history of non-professional football in England.
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