Sometimes, footballers spend their whole lives dedicated to the game. Others, however, like David Batty, come and go and leave the sport behind as soon as they can.
Batty celebrated his 57th birthday in December, but none of his former teammates could even get hold of him to wish him well. Don’t worry, though; that’s all part of his plan to lay low since retirement.
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The former Newcastle United man has been retired for over 20 years now. And football has not been a part of his life since. He never had any intentions to go into coaching or punditry; he just wanted to spend time with his family.
Now, as we prepare to watch the Magpies take on Leeds tonight, Batty’s story has come to light, and a funny story about his behaviour on the Newcastle training ground has been shared by Warren Barton.
David Batty just wanted to get home
The thing is, when he played at Newcastle, and indeed at Blackburn, too, Batty never strayed from his Yorkshire home. Instead, he made the commute to work every day.
This led to him being in a bit of a rush to leave the training ground after each session, which Barton recalled as an unusual but commendable trait.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Barton said: “He would already be in his car with his hand out the window, making a gesture to us. When Saturday came, he was ready to go, but he loved being back home.
“He just wanted to come in, do his training and get back to his kids. We respected him for that.”
Barton and the rest of Batty’s peers knew he would always be ready to “sail into the sunset” when he retired. And he was true to his word.
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David Batty’s time at Newcastle
Batty was part of the Premier League title-winning side at Blackburn in 1994/95. But, just like Alan Shearer, he left Rovers to join Newcastle in 1996. In fact, Batty made the move four months before the Magpies legend.
He would go on to make 114 appearances for Newcastle during his two-and-a-half year stay on Tyneside, scoring five goals and registering four assists.
As most would have expected, he returned to his boyhood club, Leeds, in 1998. He would retire six years later.
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