I’m a former Premier League and England prospect who retired at 23 to become a musician and film-maker

WILL MILLER possesses amazing creativity on and off the football pitch.

The 27-year-old can act, write, edit and direct – oh, and he is also pretty nifty when it comes to kicking a ball around.

As an 11-year-old he beat off competition from a 700-strong pool of would-be young actors to earn the role of Oliver Twist in a five-episode BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic.

But his passion, at least then, was football – and he ditched his burgeoning acting career to give the beautiful game a go.

After initially playing youth football at Leyton Orient, he joined Tottenham at the age of 14, subsequently progressing through the ranks and even representing England’s Under-18s.

In 2016 he joined Mauricio Pochettino’s side on their pre-season tour in Australia – featuring alongside the likes of current captain Son Heung-min.

At the time, Pochettino said of Miller: “I think he can be a very good footballer. He is very young but he is a very nice boy with a fantastic character and personality.”

With this blossoming success aged just 20, how then, did Miller retire from football altogether to pursue music and film-making just three years later?

“The crunch came the following pre-season when I went on tour with the Tottenham squad to America,” he told The Guardian in 2020.

“I was training as an attacker, more my position, but didn’t play. I was devastated.”

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Having spent the 2016-17 season on loan at Burton Albion, Miller made the move permanent after his pre-season Spurs disappointment ahead of the following campaign.

In January 2018 he suffered a devastating knee injury, which ruled him out until the next season.

He would make a full recovery and return to Championship action, but the fire to be a professional footballer had extinguished within him.

I was so invested in this creative stuff it diluted some of that drive as a footballer

Will Miller

Miller added: “By November 2018 I was playing again in the first team. But, by the end of the season, I decided to retire.

“My mentality had changed. I was so invested in this creative stuff it diluted some of that drive as a footballer.”

At Burton, Miller befriended team-mate Marvin Sordell.

The former forward, who has since been candid and brave in opening up about his mental health battle, impressed Miller with his poetry and the pair became close.

Having both hung up their boots in 2019, the duo created their own company, 180 Productions, alongside fellow former Burton team-mate Harry Campbell and pal Maxwell Harris-Tharp.

Four years on and 180 Productions is thriving.

Just this year, Miller has worked with the likes of EA Sports FC 24 and Arsenal on film projects alongside Sordell, Campbell and Harris-Tharp.

In addition to his work as a film-maker, Miller has dabbled with music.

He has written and performed alongside brother Gil, and was particularly inspired by the tragic death of his former Under-23s head coach at Tottenham Ugo Ehiogu aged just 44.

Reflecting on Ehiogu’s desperately sad 2017 passing, Miller said: “Ugo was the first person I had ever been close to who passed away. I was thinking: ‘Oh, my God, life’s so fragile.’

“I was on loan at Burton and I tried to carry on as normal and train but there was too much shock. Two days later my brother Gil and I recorded the song. He had played me this incredible piece of music he had written.

“Then Ugo passed and I went home. Gil played it again. I said: ‘Let’s turn this into a song.’ Raw emotion flew out of me and the lyrics were written in 20 minutes. I put it down in one take and fluffed up some of the words. But I wanted to leave it like that.”

Miller and his brother eventually uploaded the song, Crash Landing, to their YouTube channel, entitled Myacka.

Raising awareness of mental health within football has remained a passion of Miller’s.

In his latest project, he has written and directed a short film entitled “Broke”.

On its website, the film blurb says: “A young professional footballer fighting to keep his career alive, suffers a major injury set back and must confront his identity and his relationship with his father.

“Created to raise awareness around the importance of mental health within football and the support needed for aspiring and professional players falling out of the game.”

Miller may have left the game four years ago, but it clearly remains intrinsically linked with his work, just in a different way.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk