Don't Give Up The Day Job : A Year in the Life of a Part-Time Footballer

Des McKeown started at the top in football and worked his way down.

He signed for Celtic in a year when they won the League and the Scottish Cup double.

They liked him. He loved them. But from the first day he kicked a ball for money, he was never going to make millions out of the game.

Faced with a choice between struggling to break into the Parkhead first team and turning part-time and buliding a career as a salesman, he chose real life.

Hundreds of footballers whose ambitions outstripped their abilities have made the same choice as Des McKeown.

Hundreds more will one day have it forced upon them.

Don't give up the day job is their story. As the priviledged few drain the game of more money, McKeown warns of the consequences for the journeymen who cling to full-time contracts hoping against hope for a slice of the pie.

Don't give up the day job is a no-holes-barred account of one season in the lofe of part-time players seen through the eyes of a husband, father, salesman and left-back. (in that order) Can a man who only trains twice a week get as much out of footballing as someone who plays it for a living?

Is a hobby that pays 10 per cent of household bills worth putting 90 per cent of our life into?