A local legend with a national cult-following, former Premier League striker Dean Windass tackles retirement and the challenges it brings. Going from 20,000 people singing your name, week in, week out, to nothing. Just silence. A silence which nearly killed him.
Deano explains how football defined him. A terrier, a goalscorer, he played with a smile on his face during a career that took him north and south of the border with Aberdeen and Oxford United, Sheffield United and Wednesday, Middlesbrough and Bradford City. Popular wherever he played, his career is crystallised by one very special goal for his local club.
Thousands of fans travelled from his hometown of Hull to Wembley and saw their hero score the £30m goal. Typical of Deano, it was no ordinary goal, but a stunning volley. It secured Hull City's promotion to the top flight for the first time since. 'Genuine Roy of The Rovers stuff' said the BBC… but what happens at the end of a career spanning more than 800 games and 200 goals, once the boots are hung up and the phone stops ringing? That's another challenge altogether.
Highs, lows, drink, divorce, despair, collapse. And then reinvention, positive mental health and learning how to live again. "If it helps one more person than me, then I'm happy," says Deano, with that warmth and authenticity that won the hearts of fans at each of the clubs he represented. A proud and straight-talking Yorkshireman, he pulls no punches, to tell it all in Life After Football – and shows once the final whistle blows retirement from the game comes with its own wins and losses.
