I signed for Celtic at 12 but went cold turkey for two years (2025)

It's been quite a journey for Sam Wardrop who has taken to coaching and the world of social media

Sam Wardrop has opened up on his rollercoaster journey that started at Celtic at 12 to teaming up with superstar Lionel Messi.

The former Hoops defender spent nine years at the club before playing for the likes of Dundee United, Dumbarton and Airdrie. It was at this point, at the age of just 24 he went COLD TURKEY on his career and didn't kick a ball for two years.

He turned to coaching and social media - two driving factors that restored that real fire in his belly and sparked a journey which he shared through his new skill set to get back into the professional game - a move he realised in Sweden's third tier with Ljungskile SK.

But life away from the park using those key traits ingrained in him as a player on the pitch have helped him succeed in a whole new world. Drive, dedication, discipline. Those three standards have helped him flourish in other areas and one of those projects has got him involved with helping Messi launch his new Mas+ hydration drink in Scotland.

Sharing his story with FIFPRO, Wardrop explained: "I didn’t kick a ball for nearly two years. When I was 24, I went cold turkey on football because that’s just where I was at the time. I had fallen out of love with the game.

"My journey as a footballer started when I signed for Celtic’s youth academy at 12 years old. I was there for nine years. It was everything to me. When I was 21, I moved to Dundee United, a Championship team at the time, and I was still full of excitement about the career ahead of me. Six months into a tricky season, though, I ruptured my ACL.

"It was the first time I had been forced to take a break from the game. Up until that point, football was 24/7, 365 days a year. It didn’t leave much time to explore other avenues. As I had time to think when I was out, I started to dip in and out of other interests. When I returned from injury, I felt differently about football and I struggled to gain that hunger and passion that I had always nurtured for the game. So, I quit.

"Or rather, I put the brakes on and started to explore my freedom. I had been to so many countries with football, but I’d never seen anything beyond the training ground and the hotel, so I started to travel and see different parts of the world on my own terms.

"I wasn’t starting over though, far from it. I started to realise how much my career as a footballer has set me up for life outside it. I had picked up an extraordinary work ethic and transferable skills that had been ingrained in me on the pitch: drive, dedication, discipline. If you have those standards instilled in you from a young age, you can succeed at so much more than just football.

"When I was a professional footballer, the last thing I ever thought I was going to do was coach; I just wasn’t interested in it. The same went for social media; I never would have imagined being comfortable on camera, never mind doing it for a living. However, when I took that break from football, I started exploring both of those avenues and realised how much I loved them. I found myself totally engaged in the process and felt my experience could deliver a lot of value to other players.

"I got that fire back in my belly; I felt the way I did when I was looking forward to a future in football. Football was still my calling, I had just found another way to engage with it through coaching, content creation, and storytelling.

"I always told myself that I wouldn’t return to football because I needed to, but rather because I wanted to. My work gave me the fresh perspective I needed to start again.

"I started training, with all the hard work and dedication that I had learned when I was younger, but this time with the knowledge that it wasn’t all that I was. Through my content creation, I received opportunities to train with professional teams and showcase their environment and my journey to other players. I rediscovered the passion for playing that I thought I had lost.

"In 2024, I returned to professional football with Ljungskile SK in Sweden’s third tier. Football is a short career, so it’s understandable that people want to make the most of it. But you should also be looking to maximise your enjoyment of the game, and that might involve looking at yourself just a little differently.

"If you’ve grown up dedicating your life to your dreams of a professional career, then you’ve probably got far more varied tools at your disposal than you think, and there’s nothing to stop you expanding how you use them."