David Ornstein (DO), a renowned reporter for The Athletic and one of the most trusted journalists in world football, revealed in an interview that he almost became a professional player before becoming a journalist.
Ornstein disclosed that he once had a trial at an English Premier League club, which was none other than the Premier League giant, Chelsea. He trained there for a full year but ultimately decided that a career in football wasn’t right for him.
Ornstein said, “I only knew how to work hard; my academic abilities were not strong, as my grades at school were poor because all I could think about was playing football. I trained with Chelsea for a year, with the aspiration of becoming a Premier League footballer, or at the very least, a professional footballer.”
“Then many of my relatives were getting into university with excellent grades, which made me question what I was doing. At the time, I also worked part-time as a server at Pizza Hut, which made me realize I needed to put in more effort. Unfortunately, I didn’t have great academic skills, so I chose to work hard instead.”