A TOTTENHAM Europa League winner quietly retired from football over the summer to pursue a career in photography.
The 27-year-old was down the pecking order as a reserve goalkeeper at Tottenham, often the third, fourth or even fifth choice between the sticks.
With his chances of playing for his boyhood club – living just two minutes from the stadium – low, he channelled his energy into other passions of his, including acting classes, hosting a radio show and developing his skills as a photographer.
The star, who joined Spurs when he was 10 years old, left the club as a free agent in the summer with a single appearance for the senior team to his name, a second-half substitute appearance in the Europa League under Jose Mourinho in 2021.
He received transfer interest from clubs as high as the Championship, being offered a six-month contract to be a No2, while also having a trial at a League One side who ultimately could not offer a deal due to financial issues.
But rather than trying to forge out a career in the EFL, Alfie Whiteman opted to hang up his gloves.
That decision, which came months after he won the Europa League with Spurs in Bilbao as they beat Manchester United 1-0, has sparked an incredibly unique career switch into film and photography.
Whiteman has signed as a photographer to Somesuch, a global production company with offices in London and Los Angeles which was behind Aneil Karia’s ‘The Long Goodbye’ which won the 2022 Oscar for Best Live Action Short.
Speaking on his decision to The Athletic, he said: “I signed for Spurs at 10 years old. Then I left school at 16 and went straight into this full-time life of football. When I was around 17 or 18, living in digs, I just had this feeling inside of, ‘Is this it?’
“Getting on the mini bus, going to training, doing the Sports Science BTEC (he also did an A Level in Economics) and going home to play video games. I realised, ‘Oh, I’m not happy here’ from quite a young age.
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“The stereotype of a footballer is generally quite true. It’s the golf, washbag culture. I was that young footballer. I wanted the Gucci washbag and I drove the Mercedes.
“You all just become a reflection of each other. You’re a product of your environment. It’s the way football is in this country; it’s so shut off from anything else. You go to training and then you go home, that’s it.
“I guess I always felt a little bit different. My team-mates — who I got on well with — called me a hippie. That was their definition. But then, when I was 18, I met my ex-girlfriend, who was a model.
“She was a bit older than me. Her best friend was a director. It just started opening my eyes to what life has to offer.
“So as I was getting a bit older around 18 or 19, I started meeting new people and realising a bit more about myself, and understanding the football bubble, because it’s so insular.”
Whiteman continued: “Football is a short career regardless, even if you do really well, and I knew that I didn’t want to stay in it.
“It was about trying to gain experience and be proactive in learning about these things I was also interested in, but mainly because I was enjoying it, and was surrounded by the kinds of people that were doing what I enjoyed as a job.
“They were making things. It was really inspiring.”
Whiteman described the lack of control he had over his football career as “frustrating”, detailing how a request to go on loan in 2024 after he had recovered from an ankle injury in pre-season in 2023 was rejected due to the club’s academy training registration needs for the Europa League.
His new career was kick-started after doing a job for a firm called Vibram at the World Toe Wrestling Championships, with a short film he shot ultimately being a big success with a five-star review from David Reviews, a prominent outlet within the short-form content space.
Whiteman said: “I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll come hold the lights!’ And the day before that shoot, they asked for a video, too, so I was like, ‘I’ll do it. I’ll do it!’
“There was no budget or brief, nothing. I turned up with him on the day and ran around with my camera, and then took it to an editor, sat with him, and made this thing and it got posted.”
And within weeks of the film he had signed for Somesuch, and that job has kept him away from watching football since his retirement.
However, he revealed he has his eyes on being at the World Cup next summer and now enjoys a “pure” kick about with mates on a Wednesday evening.