Europa League winner with Spurs who retired at 27 now has a whole new career
A player who won the Europa League with Spurs last season has retired at just 27 and is now living a very different life.
Goalkeeper Alfie Whiteman joined Spurs’ academy when he was only 10 and spent his whole football career in north London. He played just one game for the senior team, coming on as a substitute in a Europa League group match during the 2020/21 season.
Even though he didn’t play much, Alfie was part of the first-team squad under some top managers like Antonio Conte, Jose Mourinho, and Ange Postecoglou. Last season, he was registered as a club-trained player for the Europa League squad, and Spurs had to include four players in that category.
Although he didn’t get any game time, the club still gave him a winner’s medal. He left Spurs when his contract ended in June and then retired from football shortly after turning 27 in October.
The Athletic shared that Alfie had trials with several clubs in the summer. He was even offered a six-month contract as the second-choice goalkeeper at a Championship club but decided to say no.
Fans had already noticed Alfie’s interests outside of football. He gained a small following for his film reviews on the website Letterboxd. Alongside football, he also started exploring creative fields like photography, music, and acting.
“I guess I always felt a little different,” he told The Athletic in October 2025, talking about how he realized he could have a career beyond football. “My teammates called me a hippie—that was their way of putting it. But when I was 18, I met my ex-girlfriend, who was a model, and her best friend was a director. That opened my eyes to what life could offer.
“As I got older, around 18 or 19, I started meeting new people and learning more about myself and how narrow the football world really is.”
Now, Alfie works as a director and photographer for the production company Somesuch. His management’s website says he’s also taking acting classes. Plus, he’s a resident DJ on NTS Radio, which broadcasts to over 50 countries from Hackney, east London.
His first art exhibition, called ‘A Loan,’ opened at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 1 and will stay there until September 27. It shows photos and diary entries from his time on loan in Sweden and even includes a full-size replica of the lakeside sauna where he spent lots of time.
The exhibition description says: “Whiteman’s funny, sad, silly, angry, and surreal photos show the monotony and routine of life as a pro athlete. But they also reveal how he began to let go of the football dream and realized there had to be more to life than the same old routine he’d been living since joining Spurs at 10.”