MANCHESTER CITY boss Pep Guardiola suffered a hammer blow when highly-rated teen Han Willhoft-King chose to study law at Oxford University instead of challenging for a first-team role.
The defensive midfielder regularly trained with the senior squad after shining for the Sky Blues’ under-21 side following his exit from Tottenham.
But Willhoft-King aced the law national aptitude test after applying to universities and was offered a place at Oxford in January.
Despite rubbing shoulders with the likes of Erling Haaland and former fan favourite Kevin De Bruyne in sessions, the ex-England U16 international chose to walk away from the pitch.
Willhoft-King told The Guardian: “I wasn’t enjoying it. I don’t know what it was, maybe the environment. I’m bored often, as well.
“You’d train, you’d come home and you wouldn’t really do anything.
“If you contrast it to now, I’m struggling to find hours in the day.
“I’m either studying, going out with friends, playing for the university first-team, also my college.
“I always felt understimulated in football. Don’t get me wrong. I still loved it. But I always felt I could be doing more.
“I was wasting hours of the day. I needed something different and Oxford excited me.
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“I guess that’s the reason. Injuries were a big factor but that’s the easy answer. I felt I needed something a bit more, mainly intellectually, which sounds quite pretentious.
“Best-case scenario – you’ll play for 10, 15 years and after that, what?
“I thought going to university would provide a platform for me to do something at least for longer than the next 10 to 15 years.
“So, it’s a bit of a long-term thing, as well.”
Willhoft-King joined Tottenham at the age of six, after playing alongside Arsenal duo Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri at grassroots level.
But he then turned down contract offers from Spurs and accepted a place at UCLA to start in January 2025.
Willhoft-King also signed a six-month deal with FC Cincinnati 2 in MLS Next Pro, but his head was turned when Prem giants Manchester City made an offer of their own.
“At that point, the plan was still to go pro and I felt like I’d always regret it if I didn’t join Man City,” added the 19-year-old.
“I would always say: ‘What if I’d taken that chance?’
“Now I’ve had that and I can step away from football knowing I’ve given it my best shot. That’s a lot more comforting for me.”
Willhoft-King did not enjoy training with Manchester City’s star-studded squad, which led to turning his attention towards getting a law degree at Oxford.
“Training with the first-team became a thing that no-one was really looking forward to, strangely enough,” he admitted.
“Because you would just be pressing.
“We would be running after the ball like dogs for half an hour, 60 minutes. It’s not a very pleasant experience, especially when you are trying to press De Bruyne or [Ilkay] Gundogan or [Phil] Foden.
“You can’t get near them, so the feeling of not wanting to do this overcomes being starstruck.”