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Brandon Williams keen to return after considering quitting football

The 24-year-old has taken a break from the game since being released by United last summer.

By contributor PA Sport Staff
Published
Brandon Williams playing for Manchester United in a Premier League match against Leicester at Old Trafford in 2021
Former Manchester United full-back Brandon Williams is hoping to return to the game (Dave Thompson/PA)

Former Manchester United defender Brandon Williams has revealed he considered quitting football but is now keen to return.

The 24-year-old has taken a break from the game since being released by United last summer.

He is currently awaiting sentence after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and driving without third party insurance at Chester Crown Court last month.

Brandon Williams puts his hand on his head during an Ipswich game
Williams had a spell on loan at Ipswich last season and was released by United in the summer (Bradley Collyer/PA)

Williams crashed his car while driving in an erratic manner and at speeds of up to 99mph near Handforth, Cheshire, with a balloon at his mouth on August 20, 2023, according to the Crown Prosecution service (CPS).

Left-back Williams has not played a competitive game since December 2023, when he was on loan at Ipswich.

Speaking on ‘Fozcast’, a podcast featuring former United and England goalkeeper Ben Foster, Williams said: “I wasn’t happy to sit out for a season. I was prepared to have a break, I just didn’t know how long that break was going to be or how long I needed that break for.

“When looking back now, I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t have the break. I don’t think I would even be training now. I literally think I would have just…”

When asked if he would have finished with football, he said: “Yes, I think so.”

Williams, who also had a spell on loan at Norwich during the 2021-22 campaign, added that the attention he received after breaking into the United first team in 2019 “just got too much for me”.

Former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (left) and Brandon Williams after a game
Williams (right) broke into the United side under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (left) in 2019 (Martin Rickett/PA)

“I just lost all of normality, I couldn’t do things,” he said. “You get people following you.”

He is now training in the hope of finding a way back into the game but admitted he has not spoken to his agent for “maybe a year”.

He added that he has received interest from other clubs in England, Europe and the United States.

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