Why does a goalkeeper wanted by Tottenham decide to retire at 24?

Ted Smith was a starter in the lower categories of the English team and stood out until he made his debut with the team of his life, Southend United, with which he played two seasons in League One and another two in League Two , until that a shoulder injury forced him to stand for 18 months.

This injury changed his career. It made his level worse and his team ended his contract, so he was free to sign with any club. There Mourinho appeared . Tottenham took an interest in him in the past winter market, but the goalkeeper has finally decided to hang up his gloves and boots, tired of the pressure of social media.

"I loved soccer, but the pressures were too much for me, " he explained in a statement to the newspaper ' The Telegraph '. "When a game ended I would see what people were saying about me. Normally there was nothing, but when criticism appeared it affected me for an entire week," admits the young goalkeeper.

Smith acknowledges he went to a sports psychologist to try to channel his fears and manage the pressure of being a professional athlete, but it didn't work either. He was still obsessed with the comments he read , no matter how minor they were, and all this led him to not want to play anymore: I grew afraid of playing, I couldn't help it. I went to see a sports psychologist, but nothing changed. "

The former goalkeeper does not know what he will do with his life now, but he is clear that "there is life beyond having to go through the stress of a soccer game, I realized that during the time I was injured", and He remembers one of his first meetings, against Bolton, as a summary of the situation he has lived through.

"It was my first game that season and I missed a goal, in a game that we should have won but that ended in a draw to one. In the locker room, everyone was brilliant. They understood that I was young and that I was devastated by what I had past, but on social media everything is black or white . Fans can give their opinion on the game, they have every right and I respect that. But it was an abuse . Some things went too far and it was difficult for me and me family, who was reading those same comments. I ended up deleting my Twitter and Instagram accounts to avoid all that. "

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