‘You need compassion’: Why Joe Lolley is not afraid to be the footballer who talks about austerity, Brexit and the NHS Exclusive: Having taken an unusual path into football, Lolley has a different perspective to many of his fellow professionals

Joe Lolley didn’t want to play football any more.

We have a vision of a footballer’s journey into stardom, and falling out of love with the game doesn’t form part of it. At 16, talented players are supposed to play and play and play and then go home to sleep and dream about playing before restarting the same cycle. How could anyone want out?

But Lolley was struggling. At the age of 14, he was an integral part of Birmingham City’s academy setup, rated highly by youth coaches. But growing pains over the course of 18 months pushed him to the fringes of the squad and meant he missed out on a scholarship. He was not released, but the dream hardly looked likely.

“They didn’t want to release me, but asked me to stay back and train with the younger year,” Lolley says. We are sat in his lounge on two sofas. He is in the process of moving from rented accommodation to a new home, but Lolley has made time after training to meet up.

“I was going to sixth form and training with the under-15s in the evening. All my age group were scholars doing training every day. A few months went on and nothing was happening, and nobody was speaking to me. So one day I just didn’t turn up. And nobody ever rang me. I took that as a hint that they weren’t that bothered.”

‘I wasn’t really bothered’

Having been chewed up and spat out, he needed a break. Lolley went four months without playing football at all, before joining Bromsgrove under-18s, ostensibly to play with his mates. When he subsequently finished school, Lolley went to the University of Central Lancashire in Preston to begin a three-year Sports Coaching and Performance degree. At that point, his only goal was to complete the course. There was no bitterness at a failed football career, because that career had never felt like an option.

“I think some players are so desperate to become a footballers, that when they get released they go on trial somewhere the next week. I wasn’t really bothered. I hadn’t really enjoyed it for a year anyway, I was in sixth form, so I thought I would just focus on something else and carry on with my life. When I went back it was to play with my mates for fun rather than try and make it. I just didn’t want to be in that kind of environment.”

Jamie Vardy’s spectacular rise from non-league to the England senior team was so astonishing because it was the rare exception to a general rule. The vast majority of footballers in England’s top two tiers graduated through the professional academy system, even if they subsequently dropped down the Football League before re-emerging.

Lolley’s story is entirely different, and his rise more rapid even than Vardy’s. In July 2013, he was planning for his final year at UCLan, playing for the university team and preparing for the new season with Littleton FC in Step 6 of non-league football. Littleton played in front of crowds of around 70, Lolley made his own way to games from university and was paid only in thanks. He believed that if he succeeded and kept developing he might move up a league or two and possibly earn £50 a match. Six months later, he was playing in the Championship.

“Everyone has their ambitions, and the young lads these days want to play for England and make it big,” he says. “I understand all that, but when I got scouted by Kidderminster at uni I thought that if I could have a year playing professional football and it didn’t work out it was still a year more than I could ever have thought I’d get.

“I think that attitude actually helps me because I don’t put too much pressure on myself. I don’t think I’m as ambitious within football as others, but that’s because I care about other things in life. If I retire tomorrow, I’ll already have achieved more than I could ever thought I might achieve. How could I not be happy.”

Premier League interest

By the following January, Huddersfield had taken Lolley up three more divisions to the Championship. Badly timed injuries meant that he never quite made his mark on the Premier League, but that was to Nottingham Forest’s advantage. Forest have invested considerable funds in their first-team squad under owner Evangelos Marinakis, but none have provided better value than the £500,000 they paid for Lolley.

Lolley’s consistency and professionalism earned him a bumper new contract in February, but his eye for spectacular goals has drawn admiring glances from Premier League clubs. Crystal Palace, Newcastle, Watford, Fulham and Cardiff were all credited with interest in the January transfer window.

But amid the hype, Lolley sees things differently. Having moved up nine steps of English football in six months and now established himself as one of the best midfielders in the Championship, it would be easy for success to go to his head. No chance. Lolley points out that when you never expected to get here, you can never forget where you came from.

“When I went to Huddersfield, they couldn’t believe that I was able to live off £70 or £80 a week regularly, but you do and you can get by,” Lolley says. “I did that at uni. We’re obviously really well paid as footballers, but I have a good grounding. Of course you spend more as you earn more, but after football I know I can live a simple life without having to ever splash out. When I retire I won’t live a certain life. I’ll go back and live quietly. Because I’ve already had a life outside football.”

It is clear that Lolley’s unusual route into the game gives him a rare outlook on his life as a footballer. Setbacks and stumbles make a person. If suffering them so early in your career makes them harder to overcome, it gives you a greater appreciation of how far you have come.

‘You need compassion’

But even accounting for that, Lolley is extraordinarily grounded. He is at his most animated when questioning why footballers are shouted down for having opinions just because of the job they do. Lolley has been regularly active on social media, discussing topics such as the struggles of the NHS, Brexit, poverty and austerity. Being a footballer doesn’t make his values less valid.

“I was always brought up to be compassionate,” he says. “You see people less fortunate than yourself and the ‘real world’ outside football, and you need compassion. I strongly believe that every person deserves to be treated the same. Sexuality, gender, race; it shouldn’t matter. I want to talk to everyone, to listen and understand what people go through. I hate that people are judged on who they are.

“For example, people see homeless people and look away and might tell you not to give them money. I hate that. I like to think of people and their stories and what they have been through. And I wish more people thought like that. But it feels like fewer and fewer people treat others how they would like to be treated themselves.”

A footballer having such strong will on such topics is unusual and can occasionally be unpopular, but Lolley isn’t doing this for any other reason than because it is what he believes is right. Nothing is for show. Living inside and outside football’s bubble allows him a view most never get.

“I don’t mind people having a go at me and telling me not to say something, because I believe in my opinions and back myself to back them up. Some people can get so wrapped up in football that they have no experience of what other people are going through. It’s not their fault, because football is all they have ever known. But I can be different. Even if I use being my position to say one thing and change one person’s mind and make them feel differently, I have to do that.”