Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola suffered a blow when promising teenager Han Willhoft-King opted to study law at Oxford University rather than fight for a first-team place.
The defensive midfielder trained regularly with the first team after having shone with the Sky Blues under-21 team after leaving Tottenham.
But Willhoft-King passed the national legal aptitude test with flying colors after applying to universities and was offered a place at Oxford in January.
Goodbye to football at 19 years old
Despite having shared training with the likes of Erling Haaland and former fan favorite Kevin De Bruyne, the former England Under-16 international opted to leave the pitch.
“I wasn’t enjoying it. I don’t know what it was, maybe the atmosphere. Plus, I get bored often. You trained, you came home and you didn’t really do anything,” Willhoft-King says in an interview with The Guardian.
The former Manchester City star player He has spoken openly about his experience at the club after switching from football to higher education at just 19 years old.. Willhoft-King, who represented England at under-16 level, joined City after leaving Tottenham’s academy in 2024, but is now pursuing a degree in law.
During his time in the City ranks, the youngster trained with Pep Guardiola’s first team on more than one occasion. However, he soon came to the conclusion that this was not his thing.
“More than exciting me, I was bored”
«De Bruyne, Haaland… they are the best players in the world. But you also realize that they are normal people. They get along well, they correct each other when they make mistakes. And seeing Pep… he is so, so expressive. The energy he transmits, the gestures with his hands, how he raises his voice… It’s really impressive but the truth is that more than exciting me, it bored me.».
“So… I don’t want to say disappointed, but you realize that… well, training with the first team became something that, curiously, no one was excited about. Because we were just pushing. We ran after the ball like dogs for half an hour, 60 minutes. It’s not a very pleasant experience, especially when you’re trying to put pressure on De Bruyne, Gündoğan or Foden. You can’t get close to them, so the desire not to do so outweighs the admiration you felt for their stars. “I didn’t enjoy it at all.”
Willhoft-King He joined Tottenham at the age of six, after playing alongside Arsenal duo Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri in the youth ranks.
But he then turned down contract offers from the Spurs and accepted a position at UCLA to start in January 2025.
Willhoft-King also signed a six-month contract with FC Cincinnati 2 in the MLS Next Pro, but changed his mind when Premier League giants Manchester City made him their own offer.
Now, take another path. “It may be pretentious but I needed something more on an intellectual level and football doesn’t provide that”sentence.