Footballer Zesh Rehman has played nearly 500 career games in clubs across the world and recently graduated from FIFPro’s Online Academy.

Zesh came through the academy at Fulham and spent ten years playing across all four professional English leagues, with stints at Norwich City, Bradford City and QPR. He now plays for Hong Kong Premier League team Southern and has spent the last ten years playing for several different teams in the Asian region.

To prepare to move beyond the game Zesh signed up for FIFPro’s Online Academy. Zesh explained why:

I’ve always tried to look ahead and prepare for a transition out of the game. In the last 4 years, I’ve made a conscious effort to engage in education by completing all of my coaching badges up to the UEFA Pro Licence and studying for a Sports Management degree, trying to make the most of my time between playing, family and travelling.”

I’ve heard about career transitions that didn’t go as smoothly as hoped, which sped up my own process of preparing for the future.”

Studying for an online degree worked well for Zesh. The university was very flexible and accommodating; they let him take exams in Hong Kong, Brunei, Malaysia, England and one even in Qatar while on international duty.

The course is tailored towards current players and they can log into lectures at any time was a big attraction for Zesh.

Zesh said:

I found it easy to catch up if I missed something, and it never felt like a burden. The lecturers were great at making sure they provided everything you needed for the course too. It was a fantastic course to be part of.”

Stay motivated when studying alone could be a challenge, and, as with anything, you need a desire to keep going, but you also need to have a vision of where you want to go.

Zesh explained;

You have to appreciate that it’s going to be challenging, especially when trying to manage your other commitments too. I set up my own business and a foundation during my studies, so I really had to learn how to manage my time and remain focused and organised.”

I also built resilience through playing football, so I used that experience to see the course through and stay on track. I was quite fortunate to have a strong support network. Shane Birtles from the PFA Charity was very helpful in explaining the course and I’ve had on-going support from Gordon Taylor and everyone at the PFA throughout my career.”

As a former PFA Player Delegate and Management Committee member, I’m well aware of the outstanding work they do, and other players can tap into those resources at any time if they're struggling too.”

It was all plain sailing and the best part of the course for Zesh was not dropping out after the first semester! It was a bit of wake-up call as hefound it difficult, and it made Zesh realise he needed to pull my finger out and get up to speed in terms of what's required.

Zesh said:

Sticking with it right to the end was a big achievement for me. I also enjoyed studying alongside like-minded sportspeople during the course – we were all in the same boat and pulled each other through. It was such a unique experience to have and they really understood the challenges I was facing, which made the whole journey more manageable.”

Zesh hopes to continue playing for as long as possible, and continue to work as an academy coach at Southern, which he been doing for the last 2 years.

He'll also be preparing for when he change’s jobs – Zesh has positioned himself well enough to get into another form of employment within the football industry with this degree and his UEFA Pro Licence.

Zesh sums up: 

When I started playing football my vision was to become the first British Asian professional football player to play in all the leagues, which I did and now I want to set a new target and be the first British Asian coach to be involved in the Premier League or Football League.”

As far as I know, there aren't any British Asian coaches currently at that level, so that's the next dream to get stuck into.”