Lee Roche, who started a Champions League match for Manchester United in 2003, retired from professional football at the age of 27 and now works on building sites while running his own cavity wall removal business.
Roche made his third senior appearance for United in a Champions League match against Spanish side Deportivo La Coruna in 2003, lining up alongside Ryan Giggs, Diego Forlan and Laurent Blanc. However, after 45 minutes of European football, he was substituted at half-time and never played for the club again.
Career after Manchester United
Following his time at United, Roche had a stint with Burnley and a return to Wrexham before playing non-league football with Manchester club Droylsden. He retired from the professional game at the age of 27 after suffering a series of injuries and falling out of love with the game.
The former full-back then pursued a new career as a plumber, qualifying in the trade, and has since launched his own cavity wall removal business. He stayed in touch with football through a stint as an U11s coach at Bury and more recently worked as a matchday data analyst for Opta Sports.
No regrets about his career
Roche, now aged 45, has admitted he has no regrets about how his career panned out. Speaking to Planet Football in 2019, he said: "I have had a few fellow workers on the building sites asking me about United and how have I ended up here. It can get pretty tiresome, so I don’t go shouting about that I played for United."
He added: "I do think young players today should be made to train as something, so they know about the real world. Most of them probably don’t have a plan to fall back on if they don’t make it as a professional."
Roche also reflected on his time at United, saying: "I don’t have any regrets. The only thing I would point out is that I was known at United for being really quiet, so perhaps I should have been more assertive and mingled more with the lads. I’d be straight off home after training to hang out with my own group of friends."
He concluded: "I look back now at team-mates like John [O’Shea] and Darren Fletcher and think I should have been more like them and gone out and socialised. I think it would have gone down better with United."
