Sheffield United cult hero opens up on unlikely career change after blood clot forced retirement
Chris Porter scored 23 goals in 118 appearances for the Blades, including a memorable FA Cup brace against Nottingham Forest, before a blood clot brought his playing career to an end at 40. Now he has revealed why he turned down a return to football with Stockport County to take on a very different challenge in the family business...
Chris Porter, the former Sheffield United striker, has swapped scoring goals for selling skip containers after turning down the chance to return to football as a coach. The striker scored 23 goals in 118 appearances for the Blades, including a vital brace to help United on their way to the FA Cup semi-final in 2014.
He earned the respect of many Unitedites with his honest performances before he hung up his boots at the age of 40 after suffering a blood clot in his leg whch kept him out for nine months.
He had still felt capable of playing on, but the health scare ultimately convinced him it was time to call it a day. And while he could have remained in the game in a different capacity, a promise to his father led him down a very different path.
"I had a couple of months off with the plan of joining the family business," he explained. "Then in July, I had a call from Dave Challinor at Stockport.
“I'd played with Dave and kept in touch, and he offered me a position as striker coach. I'd promised my old man that I would go into the business, so whilst it was a tough call, I turned Dave down."
Porter now has two roles within the family business, working in skip refurbishment through Fairport Containers while also helping to manage a commercial property business. It’s some way from life as a professional footballer, but a change he has embraced.
"We've got two different companies,” Porter added, speaking to United’s matchday programme Lane Line Up. “I'm involved in a skip refurbishment company, Fairport Containers.
“We've also got a commercial property business as well which I help manage, so I do two jobs and get paid for one! It's a big change, but a lot of players probably don't realise the skills that they acquire whilst playing football.
"I do a sales role for the containers, so I'm currently in my car driving to a waste company now to sell our services. As a footballer, you're talking to different people all the time, managers, fans, reporters.
“And those communication skills do transfer quite well into this role I am doing now. It's a million miles away from football, but I really enjoy it."
His time at United also saw him score the winner against Stevenage in the League One play-off semi-final in 2012 as well as that memorable FA Cup brace after coming off the bench against Nottingham Forest two years later.
“I came on in the 88th minute and I think we got a penalty pretty much straight away,” he said. “I just grabbed the ball, took the penalty and scored, which was my first touch.
“I went from being annoyed that I didn’t start to, in about four minutes, scoring two goals and sort of being the hero for scoring. That’s the ups and downs of football again!”
Fans wore masks of Porter’s face at Wembley as United lost to Hull in the semi-finals and Porter also experienced the disappointment of missing out on promotion while at Bramall Lane, losing in the 2012 play-off final against Huddersfield and again falling short against Yeovil Town.
After leaving the Lane permanently he had spells at Colchester United and Crewe Alexandra before seeing his career ended at Oldham Athletic after just three games.