MANY footballers will go into punditry work or coaching after retiring from football.
But many footballers are not former Bolton and Blackburn striker Nathan Blake.
Blake forged a career as a Premier League striker across the 1990’s and early 2000’s.
He started his career with Cardiff before moving to Sheffield United to kickstart his Prem career.
Five goals in 12 games in his breakthrough season marked a decent return, but he was unable to prevent the Blades from staving off relegation.
A transfer to Bolton beckoned in 1996, but he failed to make an immediate impact and soon ended up back in the old First Division, now the Championship.
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There he once again found his shooting boots, bagging 19 league goals in 1996/97 to fire Bolton back to the Prem.
However, he suffered a second relegation with Bolton despite scoring 12 goals in what would be his best goal return in a Premier League season.
A mid-season transfer in the 1998/99 season saw him complete a move to Blackburn mid season, though once again he would suffer the ignominy of relegation after scoring just three goals.
Blake spent a further two years at Blackburn before he was shipped out to Wolves in 2002.
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The Welshman helped fire them into the Premier League in the 2002/03 season as he notched 12 goals.
But history repeated itself as Blake scored just once and saw himself relegated from the Prem for the fifth time, making him the holder of the record for most relegations from the division.
Blake would eventually retire in 2006 following spells with Leeds, Leicester and Newport County, having scored 82 goals across the Premier League and the second tier of English football.
Outside of football Blake went on to speak out against vile racist abuse he had received after withdrawing from the Wales squad.
Curiously, Blake turned to acting after football.
And in 2014 won the award for best supporting actor at Film Fest Cymru for his role in the film Homing Bird, in which he plays a football coach.
He told Wales Online at the time: “I quite like doing things outside my comfort zone unless it’s skydiving or swimming with sharks.
“I only have a couple of lines but I had to change my Welsh accent to my father’s Jamaican accent but that was fine.
“I’ll do as much as I’m offered. If someone said tomorrow ‘We’ll have you in EastEnders’ then great.”
Blake has since turned his hand to journalism.
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He has worked for BBC Wales, BBC 5 Live and Sky Sports as a match analyst and commentator, as well as reporting on Cardiff City for Wales Online.
For a short while Blake also held a role as non-executive director at Newport County, before the supporter’s trust took control of the club.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
