Lee Sharpe may not have envisaged the glory he would go on to enjoy under Sir Alex Ferguson when he joined Manchester United in 1988, given the Scot’s rocky start to life at Old Trafford. But he almost certainly wouldn’t have predicted the different career bases he would touch after retiring from football.
Sharpe made his United debut in September 1988 after switching from Torquay United, going on to make 265 appearances, scoring 36 goals and lifting seven major trophies.
In between, he was named the PFA Young Player of the Year for the 1990/91 season and played an important role at the start of Sir Alex’s era of dominance.
Sharpe produced many a memorable moment in red, including his strike against Legia Warsaw en route to the 1991 European Cup Winners’ Cup.
His hat-trick against Arsenal in the League Cup and delightful backheel against Barcelona in the Champions League three years later wasn’t bad either.
And his United career may very well have been extended if it wasn’t for the emergence of young prodigies named Ryan Giggs and David Beckham in the early ’90s.
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Permanent stints at five clubs – most notably Leeds United and Bradford City – followed his three Premier Leagues, three Charity Shields, two FA Cups, one League Cup and a European Cup Winners’ Cup at Old Trafford.
He walked away from his football career – which also featured eight England caps – in 2003, finding renewed fame as a TV personality.
Celebrity Wrestling, Celebrity Love Island, Dancing on Ice, and even Coronation Street are among his credits. But in 2021, he decided to invest time into his true passion – golf.
“I’ve always loved golf. I started playing when I got to United when I was 17, so I was a bit of a late starter,” Sharpe said in an exclusive interview with Express Sport.
“But I always loved it, and I had a mate who was a golf pro on the European Tour at the same time I was trying to get my handicap down as an amateur to scratch.
“The idea was that I was going to try and qualify for the British Open as an amateur, and he was going to try and qualify as a pro. Move on a few years down the line, and I turned pro in the UK.”
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Sharpe now resides in Spain, and he’s on a mission to enter professional status overseas, too, so he can enter the Legends Tour.
He continued: “Over here in Spain, it’s a bit of a different regime, and I’ve got to go down a different route to do it. That’s what I’m trying to do at the moment: turn pro in Spain.
“Then I can become a fully-fledged PGA pro and play as many tournaments as I can, as many tours, and then the ideal goal would be to get on the European Senior Tour, to that standard of golfer.”
It’s not uncommon for footballers to try their hand at professional golf after retirement, given the sport’s popularity amongst players.
Gareth Bale’s exploration into golf has been widely documented. Sharpe name-dropped fellow ex-Red Devils star Clayton Blackmore and Jimmy Bullard as other retired footballers talented with a club.
The 52-year-old believes he has carried plenty of traits across from football, but none more than a strong mindset, which Sir Alex undoubtedly helped instil at United.
“I think it’s the mindset. I think it’s just about. You practice and train for golf competitions, and you go in, do your best, and go away and analyse what you need to improve on, what was good, what was not,” Sharpe explained.
“You don’t beat yourself up about the losses because you’ve got another game coming up that you’ve got to prepare for and get your head right again. I think one thing about football is the games come thick and fast.
“You have a bad result on a Wednesday, you have Saturday to put it right, you have a good one on Saturday, you’ve got to keep that momentum going for the Wednesday.
“So it’s thick and fast with football, whereas golf tournaments come a little less frequently. You have a little bit more time to think about it, a little bit more time to deal with issues you’re struggling with.
“But the thing with golf is you’re on your own. With football, you could be struggling, but you’ve got 10 mates to pass the ball to and to help you out. In golf, you haven’t! It’s just you and you alone.
“So it can be a very lonely place to be, a golf course, when you’ve got a scorecard in your hand, and you don’t know which way the ball is going. It’s a private experience.
“It’s different, but it’s just that mindset and drive of just keep going, get your head down every day and keep practising, practising, practising and see where you get to.”
Sharpe recently joined the European Players Tour – available for golfers around 12 handicap or less – rapidly becoming the leading amateur tour of its type in the continent.
Former Ryder Cup players, European Tour winners and Senior Tour champions are among the competitors Sharpe will face. He claims his best round to date was -6, which he’s achieved twice, most recently in West Yorkshire town Ilkley.
Sharpe said: “[It was] one of the best competitions I’ve played in. I played fantastically well. It was amazing and had a few major tour winners and Ryder Cup players. I was able to play alongside some of those and compete with some of those, which was unbelievable.”
Sharpe’s vast interests extend into fashion, and he’s just launched his second Stromberg X Lee Sharpe capsule golf clothing range in partnership with American Golf.
The former England international has been a long-term ambassador for the retailer, and he’s now excited to help get more football fans involved in the world of golf.
“It’s a little bit surreal having my own range with such a big company like American Golf. They approached me a number of years ago,” Sharpe explained.
“It’s taken us that long to get the right colour schemes, the right styles, the right materials, and to make sure we’re both happy with what comes out. With Stromberg, it’s been amazing. They’ve allowed me a bit of free reign with stuff I like to choose and like to wear, which was really good.
“One of the main things – I’m in love and obsessed with golf – was to try to grow the sport and to get that football, golf crossover and try to get football fans into golf. I think it’s an amazing sport to get into.
“Some people say it’s not a man’s sport, but you try walking around 18 holes with a bag on your back. It’s pretty tiring. It’s pretty social, and it’s a mental game, so it keeps your brain active as well.
“So I think it’s an unbelievable game to get into, and I think if we can convince some football fans to come over and play golf, all the better because it’s a fantastic game to get involved with.”
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