Marvin Sordell counted Micah Richards as a teammate at the London Olympics for Team Great Britain.
But now, 34-year-old Sordell calls Richards his manager along with fellow Match of the Day pundits Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer.
That’s because Sordell plays for Deportrio, who are managed by the three, in the Baller League.
It is not a team Sordell envisioned he would play for when he made his Premier League debut for Bolton Wanderers in the 2011/12 season at just 20 years of age following his move from Watford.
If Sordell also needed another sign he was tipped for big things in football, it came months later after he joined the Trotters as he was named in Stuart Pearce’s squad for the 2012 Games.
Sordell made two appearances for Team GB at the tournament, one of which was a start.
On the surface, it looked like Sordell’s career was only going in one direction and it sure wasn’t downwards.
But just one year later, Sordell reached breaking point as he revealed in an interview with The Guardian in 2018 he attempted to take his own life.
“On one occasion, I tried to overdose on tablets,” Sordell said.
“I took all these tablets and went to sleep. It didn’t work, thankfully.
“When I woke up I was shocked, annoyed. Some people would say, in that situation, they feel born again.
“I just thought: ‘What now?’”
Sordell continued to play football for several years following his suicide attempt as he spent time with Burnley, Colchester United and Coventry City.
However, the forward continued to battle with mental health issues and only made his struggles publicly known during his stint at Burton Albion.
In 2017, Sordell penned a poem titled Denis Prose, which is an anagram for depression, and shared it to Twitter.
The poem helped Sordell show both sides of his consciousness – himself and Denis Prose – and also encouraged fans to open up about their own experiences with mental health issues.
Sordell ultimately made the decision to retire from football aged 28.
As he explained to talkSPORT in 2019, it was not a difficult call to make.
“I didn’t enjoy being a professional football player anymore for several reasons,” Sordell said.
“Seconly, I just felt the time was right to move on as well. I’ve felt for quite some time that I wasn’t going to be one of those players that would play into their mid-to-late thirties.
“This time just felt right for me to move on, step aside and I’m happy doing so. I’m happy moving forward as well.
“I’m so proud (of what I’ve achieved). I literally lived my dream and there’s no other way of putting it.
“As a kid, I wanted to become a professional footballer and that’s all I knew. I did that and I wanted to play for England and I did that, too.”
Sordell came out of retirement in September 2024 to join non-league outfit Kettering Town before he linked up with Baller League to extend his playing days.
It appeared the 34-year-old hasn’t lost his touch either as FotMob revealed Sordell was the highest-rated player in Baller League following the first set of matches with a rating of 9.86.
