It’s very difficult to compare university sport to professional sport, but at my university sport was taken seriously. We bought into it, we trained incredibly hard, and we all believed what we were doing had a level of respect.

At that point, it was just about playing football, and enjoying playing, alongside the work I was doing for my degree. But it still burned away at me that football was my passion, was in my blood. It was never something that was going to go away. I just wasn’t sure, at that stage, how and where I was going to take it forward.

I loved playing, and that was ongoing, but at that time football wasn’t offering me anything in terms of a paycheck at the end of the month. I had to think about a career, about earning some money. Large financial institutions came into the university and offered us good packages. My degree was in economics. It felt like a natural fit, so I ended up going off to the city and starting work as a trader for HSBC.

“If I ever need to check myself about how bad my day is, I think about what all of those people faced on that day”

During my time there, they offered me a job in New York. A two-year secondment, initially, with a view to staying permanently. I accepted.

I was put together with a group of six traders and taken under the wing of an Italian-American guy who was very experienced and knew a hell of a lot of people on Wall Street. He really looked after me, introduced me to all of his brokers, his fund managers. It was a fantastic experience.

Around a year after I had moved to New York, the 9/11 terrorist attack happened. It was horrendous. I had spoken to a guy I knew well that morning. We lost him that day.

I’ve always prided myself on having a strong sense of perspective. But if I ever need to check myself about how bad my day is, I think of the situations that all of those people faced on that day. It’s always there.