I won the Premier League at Manchester United - now I work for a bank

When Manchester United announced the signing of goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard on November 27, 2010, Sir Alex Ferguson was excited by the Dane's potential.

Lindegaard was 26 at the time but that is still considered a relatively young age in terms of a goalkeeper's development.

"Anders is one of the brightest young 'keepers in the game," said Ferguson. "The challenge at Manchester United is always to look to the future and, in Anders, we have signed a goalkeeper of great presence and even more promise."

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Lindegaard, who is now 40, spent five years at Old Trafford. However, he failed to assert himself as the club's No.1, watching the end of Edwin van der Sar's United career and the first few seasons of David de Gea's at Old Trafford.

The former goalkeeper, who decided to hang up his gloves in November 2022, only made a total of 29 appearances during his United career, with his busiest season proving to be the 2012/13 campaign, marking Ferguson's last in charge and the last season that United won the Premier League title.

He made 10 league appearances that season, keeping two clean sheets, and was in the starting line-up for Ferguson's final game in charge - the 5-5 draw against West Bromwich Albion. Lindegaard's tally of 10 appearances meant he qualified for a Premier League medal.

Despite that, the shot-stopper was not happy with the standard of his performances that season, stemming from an ankle injury he had suffered in January 2012.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News in 2022, Lindegaard said: "The whole following year, which was the boss' [Ferguson's] final year I was struggling badly. I wasn't smart enough to tell the management I wasn't feeling right and take my time to get it fixed.

"I just wanted to play and contribute. I ended up playing 10 Premier League matches that season to earn my winner's medal. But I performed badly."

Following Ferguson's exit, Lindegaard's United career soon hit the buffers, as he made just three appearances under David Moyes. He left Old Trafford in August 2015, joining West Bromwich Albion, where he spent just half a season, playing once.

He joined Preston North End on loan in January 2016, spending the remainder of the 2015/16 season at Deepdale before making the move permanent in July. He then had two years at Burnley before moving to Swedish side Helsingborgs IF in August 2019 and spending the final three years of his career at Di Röe.

Almost two years on from announcing his retirement from football, Lindegaard, who originally signed a three-and-a-half-year deal at United, has now embarked on a new career. While the vast majority of former players attempt to stay within the sport in one way or another, whether it be via coaching or punditry, Lindegaard has decided to embark on a career in banking, securing a position as a business developer at UBS [Union Bank of Switzerland].

Opening up on the nature of the position, Lindegaard outlined how he wants to help the bank generate a better understanding of athletes.

He said: "I've started a position as a business developer at UBS. My role is to help the bank better understand successful athletes and offer them a meaningful and valuable service from the leading wealth manager.

"An ambition that holds many interesting components, which I will update on as it develops over the next couple of months. I'll always be an athlete by nature. Helping other athletes navigate through their sports adventure seems both natural and meaningful to me.

"In that sense, I see myself and my role as being hired by UBS but working for the athletes. For me personally, this is the start of a second career. I always wanted to stay within football, but I didn't want to work inside the lines of the pitch.

"I've done that my whole life and it seems timely for me to try something new. Learn new things. Develop new skills. In my new role, I'll still navigate within the industry, thus utilising my knowledge and experience from sports.

"Football is a huge industry in Europe. Yet, it still holds a significant potential for improvement. Football can simply be better. My personal ambition is to take part in driving this improvement."

To Lindegaard's credit, he is open to trying new things and experiencing what other opportunities life has to offer.

"Everything is very new, and everything is very exciting," he added. "My 'office' is now actually an office and not a stadium.

"It takes some getting used to, but I've really enjoyed my start. Especially as I've been warmly welcomed by amazing new colleagues with different skills spread across Europe. Every day feels like an opportunity to educate myself and meet new people, which is exactly the kind of challenge I've been looking for.

"Retirement from professional sports isn't easy. It's, without a doubt, a high-risk moment in any athlete's life. I'm proud to have made what, to me, is a successful transition - at least so far. And I'm relieved I've developed Anders Lindegaard 2.0."