He was lucky to be able to follow a career dream and found success in the world of professional football, signing for Coventry City in the Championship. He had a 13-year playing career and is now managing a part time team, Chelmsford City FC in the National League South.
During his football career Robbie noticed how retiring players often struggled to adjust to ‘normal’ life. He himself had times when he would worry about his own future beyond football. Reaching out to elite performers across other sports, Robbie found the situation was very much the same.
He identified a gap in the market for helping retiring sports people find new careers and utilise the natural traits and skills they had as elite sports performers to become successful in careers beyond sport.
He co-founded his company LAPS (Life After Professional Sport) with recruiter Rob Steed.
The company now boasts over 4000 LAPS members, all verified current or former sports professionals and the company has associations with hundreds of companies who actively want to recruit from the sport sector.
Robbie comments: "Many former professional sports people suffer mental health problems, financial difficulties, divorce, etc when they retire. There was a clear need to provide help and assistance to these people to find fulfilling careers beyond sport. LAPS provides that service and I am pleased to have offered much need support to those who need to find a new direction in life."