by Former Manchester City star Michael Johnson looked set to be the next big thing for club and country – but left the game behind aged just 24 before becoming an estate agent.
It was in 2006 that Johnson broke through the ranks at City and burst onto the scene with some eye-catching performances. The goals and assists continued and the youngster was able to go on to achieve great things, until injuries and problems with self-doubt saw the midfielder walk away from football.
Former City team-mate Didi Hamann had described him as an “excellent” midfielder who reminded him of German icon Michael Ballack, while former manager Sven-Goran Eriksson thought he would be “another big star for England”. Now 36, Johnson revealed how he battled personal and physical problems and admitted it was a “relief” to leave it all behind to focus on working as an estate agent and car dealership.
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Johnson’s astronomical rise saw him immediately front and center, with Liverpool even bidding for the star in 2008. However, after a series of injuries hit the Urmston-born player, along with mental health issues, he was struggling to live up to its early promise. . In an interview with The Athletic from 2020, Johnson bravely lifted the lid on his exit from his new career at City and revealed problems with his “self-esteem”.
“My issue was always self-esteem. I just felt low in myself. I never felt like I was as good as the kids around me,” Johnson said. “I’m not talking about football. I knew I was good at football. I’m talking about how I felt as a person. I used to think, ‘You’re not like those lads. You can’t be their friend’. You look at yourself in the mirror and you feel like it’s someone else looking back at you.”
City fans will be old enough to recall the hype around Johnson and then Blues manager Eriksson branded the star as “amazing” and “unbelievable”. Although former Liverpool star Hamann claimed he had never seen such a Johnson at the time. The former Bayern Munich star added that Johnson was “probably the most complete young player I’ve ever seen”.
Johnson, who began his career with short spells at City and Everton, moved to Feyenoord aged just 12. He had spells with Liverpool and Crewe Alexandra before returning to Everton and then back to City aged 16 to start his scholarship.
Despite making it into the City team, including a blistering start to the 2008/09 season, a repeat stomach injury, which had struck him the year before, kept him out of the team for seven months. Johnson revealed that struggles on the treatment table, as well as a serious knee injury in late 2009, meant he wasn’t getting “released” and, compounded by his mental health issues, he candidly admitted that there was “no hope” recovery
“I was hurt a lot. That didn’t help,” he said. “It’s well known that you can get those natural endorphins by playing and exercising, but, especially after I had surgery on my knee, the release was not I’m getting that too.
“I thought he was going to give me all this confidence, being a footballer. He should have done it. I put all my value on achieving in football. But he had the opposite effect on me. I was thinking, ‘Why the hell do I feel like this?’ And it wasn’t just that I wasn’t feeling better about myself.
Johnson, who would later go on loan to Leicester, described feeling like “someone had turned off the light” and he didn’t know where to turn. Regardless of endless praise from the likes of Eriksson and Hamman, City’s young star could not shake his terrible self-doubt and eventually turned to alcohol.
Johnson was caught drink-driving twice in three months and fined a total of £5,500, before being banned from driving for three years. Speaking about that period, he said: “They were low times. I was trying to escape my feelings by drinking, but I can’t give in to that at all. I know it was dangerous and wrong.”
Johnson later sought help and checked into the Priory clinic. He last played for City in October 2009, scoring in a 5-1 League Cup win against Scunthorpe before being released from his contract in January 2013.
Speaking about his departure, Johnson admitted that he had to take care of his health and felt it was the right time. “It was a relief. I knew I couldn’t give my all in football. I had to sort myself out. I knew I couldn’t do both. I couldn’t be a professional footballer – not a good professional anyway – feeling the way I felt,” he told The Athletic. “It was the right time to leave. And when I left, I knew I could just focus on fixing my health.”
While the likes of former City academy director Jim Cassell believe it is a “tragedy” that Johnson is no longer in the game, with the young Blues boss lamenting what a “wonderful” career he could have had for club and country, Johnson on. finding purpose in life working as an estate agent, landlord and trading American cars.
The 36-year-old is also a father and claimed his new lifestyle was just what he needed: “If it was a choice between a) leaving football early and settling myself, like I did, or b) continue with football. but without resolving myself, I would choose the former all day.”
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