MANCHESTER CITY boss Pep Guardiola suffered a hammer blow when highly-rated teen Han Willhoft-King chose to study law at Oxford University instead of challenging for a first-team role.
The defensive midfielder regularly trained with the senior squad after shining for the Sky Blues’ under-21 side following his exit from Tottenham.
But Willhoft-King aced the law national aptitude test after applying to universities and was offered a place at Oxford in January.
Despite rubbing shoulders with the likes of Erling Haaland and former fan favourite Kevin De Bruyne in sessions, the ex-England U16 international chose to walk away from the pitch.
Willhoft-King told The Guardian: “I wasn’t enjoying it. I don’t know what it was, maybe the environment. I’m bored often, as well.
“You’d train, you’d come home and you wouldn’t really do anything.
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“If you contrast it to now, I’m struggling to find hours in the day.
“I’m either studying, going out with friends, playing for the university first-team, also my college.
“I always felt understimulated in football. Don’t get me wrong. I still loved it. But I always felt I could be doing more.
“I was wasting hours of the day. I needed something different and Oxford excited me.
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“I guess that’s the reason. Injuries were a big factor but that’s the easy answer. I felt I needed something a bit more, mainly intellectually, which sounds quite pretentious.
“Best-case scenario – you’ll play for 10, 15 years and after that, what?
“I thought going to university would provide a platform for me to do something at least for longer than the next 10 to 15 years.
“So, it’s a bit of a long-term thing, as well.”
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Willhoft-King joined Tottenham at the age of six, after playing alongside Arsenal duo Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri at grassroots level.
But he then turned down contract offers from Spurs and accepted a place at UCLA to start in January 2025.
Willhoft-King also signed a six-month deal with FC Cincinnati 2 in MLS Next Pro, but his head was turned when Prem giants Manchester City made an offer of their own.
“At that point, the plan was still to go pro and I felt like I’d always regret it if I didn’t join Man City,” added the 19-year-old.
“I would always say: ‘What if I’d taken that chance?’
“Now I’ve had that and I can step away from football knowing I’ve given it my best shot. That’s a lot more comforting for me.”
Willhoft-King did not enjoy training with Manchester City’s star-studded squad, which led to turning his attention towards getting a law degree at Oxford.
“Training with the first-team became a thing that no-one was really looking forward to, strangely enough,” he admitted.
“Because you would just be pressing.
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“We would be running after the ball like dogs for half an hour, 60 minutes. It’s not a very pleasant experience, especially when you are trying to press De Bruyne or [Ilkay] Gundogan or [Phil] Foden.
“You can’t get near them, so the feeling of not wanting to do this overcomes being starstruck.”
