He’s a household name and a football legend, but Alan Shearer says nothing came easy for him during his career and he believes he was lucky.
Since retiring from the game in 2006 as the Premier League’s record goal scorer, Shearer has since enjoyed his career as a pundit on Match of the Day. Despite being a Premier League winner with Blackburn Rovers, Shearer says he was “lucky” to play the game.
In an exclusive interview with UCFB, he said: “I was fortunate enough to go from one dressing room when I retired in 2006 from Newcastle, into another dressing room in the media where I’ve got to see a whole different side of things.”
During his playing career Shearer was known as an industrial, feisty striker who knew how to find the back of the net. However, he says that he counted his lucky stars before every match.
He added: “I was very, very fortunate and lucky to be paid to play football; I would’ve played anyway even if I wasn’t professional. So then to get to the level that I did, it was because of my determination, attitude and hard work.”
Shearer added: “The easiest part is getting to the top, the hardest part is staying there because everyone knows who you are and everyone knows what you’re good at and what you’re not. They all study your game and how to stop you.”
It’s clear that Shearer stayed at the top of his game for the entirety of his career, but now in the media industry, he has become a well-respected pundit and is now at the top of another game.
Shearer believes that the characteristics from his football career transferred smoothly into his media career because, just like in any industry, hard work pays off.
When asked about working on Match of the Day, he said it requires a lot more than just turning up for the show ten minutes before going live.
He explained: “We’ve got to be in to watch the first games at midday, the games at 3pm and then at 5.30pm. You take notes and give them to the editors with timing codes. You’ve then got to rehearse for maybe half an hour or an hour and make sure that everything is correct.”
He says all that is done well before the show is screened, and there is so much prep work that is done for any television broadcast. Insisting on staying humble, Shearer concluded: “To be able to play football and now be on the other side, I am one lucky lad.”
