Meet two Soccer Aid stars who almost became pro footballers before superstardom

11 June 2023 , 06:00

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Singer Tom Grennan was on the books of Luton Town as a youngster (Image: Getty Images)

The annual Soccer Aid charity match will take placeat Old Trafford on Sunday, with a host of celebrities and football legends coming together to raise money for UNICEF.

And among the celebrities due to take part in the game are two who could have gone on to become professional footballers. Singer-songwriter Tom Grennan played for Luton Town's youth team and had dreams of going pro, before turning his attention to music after rejecting a football scholarship in America.

"I played from the moment I could walk and played for Bedford Town where I'm from and then I ended up playing for Luton Town and played for Northampton and Stevenage," Grennan said in an appearance on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show in 2021. "I was playing for the academies and then got dropped, and then I just didn't get better.

"Then I was going to go to America and play because I got offered a scholarship to go out there when I was about 17, 18. Then I was like, this isn't for me. I felt like, this is a bit long. I didn't want to leave my mum to be honest."

Grennan returned to Luton in 2019, taking part in a training session with the first-team squad and his dreams crushed again by then Luton boss Mick Harford. "He called me 'fat'. He said I had a bit of a gut as he patted my belly," Grennan told the Sun.

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"It was a good crack but it's mad how quick the footballers are and how fast the ball moves. It was a different level to anything I'm capable of. I played for Luton for a few years when I was about 13.

"The club heard what I'd been saying about being a footballer, so they decided to take a look at me. But I've not played as much football since my singing and songwriting career took off. You lose match sharpness and the muscles aren't used to it any more."

Influencer Noah Beck starred in last year's Soccer Aid and had hopes of going pro (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

Grennan will represent England at this year's Soccer Aid and will go up against American influencer Noah Beck, who will be playing for the World XI. It will be Beck's second appearance in the charity match, with his performance at last year's event branded "impressive" by England and Manchester United legend David Beckham.

And it turns out the influencer also had plans to become a professional football, having played for MLS side Real Salt Lake's academy and attended the University of Portland on a football scholarship where he represented Portland Pilots. However, he turned his attention to social media in 2020 and has amassed a whopping 33.9m followers on TikTok and a further 9m on Instagram.

"Unfortunately, yet fortunately, things happened," Beck told Boardroom last year about his football aspirations. "But somehow I always knew no matter what I did in my life, I always wanted to stay in touch with the game. … People who really know me know that I played soccer, knew that I grew up in the system and knew it was my goal since I was a kid to go pro."

Matthew Cooper