Working for Tesco saved my football career – I’ve gone from doing click and collect at 5am to League Two stalwart

LUKE HANNANT returns to the EFL today at the age of 31 with Oldham — admitting: Working for Tesco saved my football career.”

The ex-Port Vale, Cambridge and Colchester midfielder has been playing non-league with Gateshead for the past two years — while the Latics have been out of the League for three seasons.

Luke Hannant is back in the EFL this season with newly-promoted Oldham AthleticCredit: OLDHAM ATHLETIC FC

Luke Hannant owes his career to TescoCredit: Getty

Tesco superstore near Dunstan Hall, Norwich, where Luke Hannant worked

But today he is set to pull on an Oldham jersey as they travel to big-spending MK Dons for their League Two opener.

Yet Hannant had no concerns about dropping out of the EFL after not being offered a new deal at Colchester — having done the same when he was released by Cambridge as an 18-year-old.

Rather than feeling sorry for himself he rolled up his sleeves, enrolled to do a three-year Sport, Exercise and Science degree at Northumbria University while working in a superstore and playing part-time for Dereham Town.

And his story can give a lot of comfort to the several hundred young footballers who are released by Premier League and EFL academies each year.

He told SunSport: “I was working at Tesco in Norwich and loved it.

“It was a shock for me at the time. I had to drop my ego because I didn’t have any income.

“So I thought, ‘I’m just going to work at Tesco and play semi-professional football on the side.

“At Tesco I did everything and anything. Honestly, I was on the tills, I was doing click and collect. I used to get up at five in the morning and then finish at two or three.

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“I’d be doing people shopping in the morning and then going to train twice a week.

“At that age, I was earning more money working at Tesco than I was on my scholarship at Cambridge. So I was saving more money and was able to fund my university fees.

Luke Hannant celebrates scoring during his time with Cambridge UnitedCredit: PA“It was a good fun time of my life. I’m not embarrassed to tell people what I was doing in the early part of my football career, ‘I was working at Tesco mate!’

‘That ended up giving me the football career I had because I enjoyed those years of my life without having a ridiculous amount of pressure that a lot of academy players have to deal with.”

Hannant ended up spending two years with Gateshead before Port Vale snapped him up in 2018 when he was aged 24 and made 68 appearances for the then League Two club.

He moved to Cambridge and featured in 77 games, winning promotion from League Two in 2021.

But, with the benefit of hindsight, he made a mistake by not signing a new deal and playing League One football in favour of a bigger pay cheque with Colchester in the fourth tier.

He said: “Because I’d come from working at Tesco and earning a modest income, I was waiting for a deal that I deserved and had worked hard for.

“If I look back, do I regret it? Maybe there’s a little part of me that does because I’d have wanted to try and play in League One and play against some of them big clubs. But you can’t live in regret.”

Hannant had initially come through the youth ranks at Norwich where he was from the ages of nine to almost 15.

And during that time he struck up a good friendship with former Norwich and Nottingham Forest midfielder Gary Holt, who played in the Premier League for the Canaries, making 168 appearances during his time with the club.

Norwich star Gary Holt tries to stop Arsenal’s Freddie Ljungberg in his tracksHannant said: “Gary lived in my village. We shared lifts so he’d take me into training if he ever had to go in.

“He’d be out going on a run and he’d be knocking on my door saying, ‘Do you want to come?’ But I said, ‘I can’t keep up with you Gary.’

“And he was like, ‘Get on your bike, mate.’ So I used to bike next to him as he ran around the village. I had to chase him on my bike too! He was so fast.

So today Hannant is grateful he gets another shot at the EFL while Oldham fans are finally happy after three decades of misery since they were founder members of the Premier League.

Hannant, who was born in 1993 during Oldham’s last season in the top flight, said: “Last time I checked we’d sold almost 2,000 tickets to go to Milton Keynes. That is massive. There’s a lot of confidence in the camp and if we can be consistent then we can have a strong season.”