What is it like to be a Semi-Pro footballer, dealing with juggling a job alongside your playing career?

What are the best bits and what are some of the parts that aren't quite as nice. I could guess and I could also take a punt at some of the things that goes behind closed doors both physically and firguratively. 

However, you do not need to wonder any more as one footballer who is still playing, currently for Ware FC, Khale Da Costa. Khale has just released a book named "The Semi-Pro Footballer: Ambition. Sacrifice. Rejection. Resilience. The journey nobody sees." 

I sat down with Khale to ask him how this all come about, what people should expect inside and why he chose now to release it and not when he has finished playing completely. 

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When you look back at the journey that has taken you to where you are today, what are the moments that you feel really shaped you as a footballer and, perhaps more importantly, as a person?

I would probably say the lows shaped me more than the highs. Injuries gave me time to reflect, and even mistakes such as red cards forced me to look at myself and learn from situations.

I have also always tried to use my mornings productively. I still do that now. If I feel I need to improve my fitness, I will add fitness work. If there is another area I want to develop, I will focus on that. I try to set myself different targets each month and keep working towards becoming better.

Every football career has its highs, its setbacks and its moments when you have to question yourself. What has been the toughest period of your career, and what did it teach you?

The toughest period was probably when I went to Dover. I had worked so hard to get that move, but I was not playing.

I had experienced periods without football before because of injuries, but this was different. I was fit and available; I simply was not being selected. I think that was the first time I really experienced not playing because the manager perhaps did not see me in his plans.

That was extremely difficult mentally, but in turn it made me work harder and taught me a lot about staying motivated when things are not going your way.

Was there ever a point where you genuinely wondered whether football was going to work out for you? And if so, what kept you going?

Yes, loads of times.

Having mentors around me definitely helped keep me focused. After a lot of my injuries, mentally I would almost give up because it was so draining. I could get myself into a really good run of form and then suddenly get injured again.

The period after Chelmsford was particularly difficult because I had so many different injuries in a relatively short space of time. It was probably one of the worst periods of my career injury-wise, and there were definitely moments where I questioned whether I wanted to continue.

The people around me helped keep me focused and eventually helped me keep going.

Football can look very glamorous from the outside, but players see a completely different side of it. What’s something about life as a professional footballer that you wish people understood better?

I think people sometimes underestimate the sacrifices footballers have to make.

Because you are being paid to play football, people can assume that there is no sacrifice involved, but there definitely is.

For example, a lot of people can finish work on a Friday, spend time with family, go out for a drink or socialise. For a footballer, Friday night is almost like lockdown because everything is centred around preparing properly for Saturday’s match.

Holidays are another example. You cannot necessarily just book a holiday whenever you want. There are certain windows in the year where you can properly go away and relax because football controls so much of your calendar.

Those sacrifices are a big part of the game that people do not always see.

Who are the people who have had the biggest influence on your career, whether that’s a coach, teammate, family member or someone away from football?

I think it would be unfair to name just one person because different people have influenced different stages of my career.

I mention Doja in my book, who has been an important mentor to me. Curtis Ujah has also been a mentor and somebody who has helped me a lot.

Then there are managers and coaches such as Steve McKimm, Adam Flanagan and Kem Kemal, who all had a big influence on me at different stages.

There are plenty of others as well, and I think when people read the book they will understand just how many different people helped shape my journey.

 

Is there a particular game, goal, mistake, conversation or dressing-room moment that you still find yourself thinking about today?

There are loads, to be honest.

One that I still think about is the red card I got for Chatham against Hornchurch towards the end of the season. It effectively ended my league season. Luckily we were still involved in the play-offs, but it was a silly red card and something I definitely learned from.

I also think about certain career decisions. For example, I sometimes wonder what might have happened if I had chosen Dartford instead of St Albans.

Football gives you so many moments where you look back and think, “What if I had done that differently?” There are probably too many to name individually, and quite a few of them are discussed in the book.

You’ve now taken a very different step by putting your experiences into a book. When did the idea first enter your head that you wanted to actually write a book?

To be honest, not that long ago.

I would say about a month ago I started flirting with the idea. I did some research into what would actually be involved and realised it was possible.

From there, I decided to go for it.

What was the real motivation behind it? Was there something you felt you needed to say, a story you wanted to tell, or a message you wanted people to take away from your journey?

Part of the motivation is that I am building an online football academy where I want to mentor and support players who genuinely want to improve.

The book also gave me an opportunity to show people what actually goes on behind the scenes in non-league and semi-professional football.

There is so much that supporters and young players do not necessarily see, and I wanted to give people an honest insight into some of the things semi-professional footballers have to deal with.

Ultimately, it was about sharing my journey and hopefully allowing people to take something useful from it.

How difficult was it to decide what to put in and what to leave out? Were there parts of your story that were particularly difficult or uncomfortable to revisit?

It was really difficult.

You want to include as much detail as possible, but then one memory leads to another, and suddenly you remember another story that you feel should be included.

Eventually I had to give myself a cut-off point. I basically had to say, “This is where the book stops.”

If I remembered something else after that point, unfortunately it could not keep being added because otherwise the book would never be finished.

When you were writing it, did you find yourself looking back at your football career differently? Did putting those experiences on paper change the way you understood your own journey?

Definitely.

I am somebody who tends to play my own journey down a little bit because it was non-league football and I never achieved my childhood dream of breaking into the Football League.

But writing the book made me look back and realise that I actually achieved quite a lot.

I managed to play from Step 4 all the way through to Step 1. I experienced different clubs, different managers, different environments and different levels of the game.

I have matured massively through that journey.

Writing it all down made me look back and think, “Wow, that actually was my journey.”

Who do you most want to read this book? Is it aimed primarily at young footballers dreaming of making it, people who have experienced setbacks themselves, or simply anyone who wants to understand what happens behind the scenes?

I would not want to limit it to one particular type of person.

I genuinely want everybody to be able to read the book and take something from it.

I see it almost as my way of giving something back. I feel fortunate to have experienced the levels of football that I have, and this is an opportunity to share those experiences with other people.

Different readers might take completely different lessons from it, and I actually like that.

It is really about whoever can benefit from the story and whatever lessons they personally take away from it

If someone finishes the final page and remembers just one thing from your story, what do you hope that lesson is?

I think there are probably too many lessons in the book for me to choose just one.

I see the book more as a guide based on my own experiences.

Everybody is going to make their own mistakes and everybody has to make their own decisions, but if somebody can learn from one of my mistakes or use one of my experiences to help them judge a situation in their own life or football career, then the book has done what I wanted it to do.

If my journey can help somebody else make a slightly better decision, then that means something to me.

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