Ex-Portsmouth, Swindon and Barnet defender Joe Devera: I ripped up my playing contract and walked away from football aged 30 to work for Saudi Arabia's Royal Family

The summer sabbatical wasn’t meant to signal the end of Joe Devera’s playing days, of course, merely two months put aside to help his brother’s thriving personal training business in Riyadh.

Subsequently, though, barely four months after signing a new 12-month deal with the National League club, the defender rang boss Luke Garrard to announce he wasn’t coming back.

At the age of 30, the former Pompey, Swindon and Barnet defender walked away from the game for good, eager to embark on a fresh career challenge.

Just two years after departing Fratton Park following 80 appearances and one goal, Devera established himself as a trusted personal trainer for the Saudi Arabian Royal Family.

With its lavish palaces and dazzling opulence, the House of Saud represented a very different working environment for the ex-Southsea resident.

‘I had signed another contract at Boreham Wood and the plan was to go over to Saudi Arabia in the close season to help my brother Lewis with his personal training company,’ Devera told The News.

‘It was going to be a month or so, then I’d be back for the new season – but instead I rang the manager (Luke Garrard) to tell him I wasn’t coming back.

‘My football career was nearing the end regardless. Maybe I could have had a few more seasons, I was happy there, it’s a great club, but this was a good opportunity to finish it there and then.

‘The previous season I’d suffered with a back injury, training for me was twice a week and every time I visited the physio room. I wouldn’t say injury retired me, but it definitely played a factor.

‘I’d also had a concussion during that campaign, all those things mounted up, while my desire to play was dwindling with every game, so I saw the opportunity to retire.

‘My body was breaking and breaking constantly, besides I didn’t want to be in the position again where I was waiting around to sign for another club only to get just one more year. For me, this was the best time to call it a day.

‘I never made enough money from football to retire completely after hanging up my boots, so I had to do something, I knew I needed to get other work.

‘Potentially, my next job would be for another 30 years, I didn’t want to put that off, I was keen to get started on the next chapter. Another extra couple of years in football would have been good, but delaying off what I needed to do.

‘Obviously the Boreham Wood manager wasn’t happy with my decision, but he was fine, he’s a good guy. I’ve no idea what they did with the contract, perhaps they ripped it up.

‘So for two years I worked with Lewis and my other brother Tom in Riyadh as a personal trainer, working with individual clients, which included all the royals.

‘I can’t speak too much about them, it’s client confidentiality, but they were top members of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, and it would involve me being taken by a driver to their homes for one-on-one gym sessions.

‘It definitely wasn’t a glamorous job, I was working a lot, pretty much every day, while I lived on a westernised compound, but I did a lot of travelling, while not playing football and being free from pain all the time was a huge plus.

‘Saudi Arabia isn’t actually how it is perceived by the West. Although it’s a strict country, people around me never had any issues, felt uncomfortable or anything like that.

‘However, for me, it was always a means to an end and never long-term. I worked for two years, long enough to make a lump of money, and then returned to London.’

In the summer of 2013, with Pompey under fan ownership following their High Court victory over Balram Chainrai and Portpin, manager Guy Whittingham was challenged with overseeing a huge squad overhaul.

Now in League Two following a third relegation in four years, Devera was his fifth signing, arriving in May 2013 from Swindon, where, in successive seasons, he won the League Two title and then reached the League One play-off semi-finals.

However, by March 2014, Whittingham and replacement Richie Barker had been sacked – with the Blues now 22nd and fearing relegation to non-league.

Positioned just one point above the drop zone with seven matches remaining, chairman Iain McInnes turned to Academy manager Andy Awford as caretaker.

Remarkably, Devera and his team-mates stayed up with three matches to spare, eventually finishing 13th.

He added: ‘That first season at Pompey was probably the worst of my career.

‘We were expected to do a lot better, it was often talked about finishing top of the table, while personally I didn’t have a good campaign, I didn’t do well.

‘I was one good game, one bad game, that’s no good. Although I did perform better for the club in my second season and felt I did myself more justice.

‘It wasn’t just one thing in that first season, if you broke it down it would be a number of issues, a number of pieces of the puzzle not being right, that’s the best way of explaining it.

‘We were given the tools, you can’t say we weren’t. Pompey were signing players, paying good salaries for League Two, they had high expectations like any big club, yet couldn’t deliver.

‘It wasn’t working, it wasn’t right, and that’s pretty much why we had such a bad season.

‘Andy Awford came in towards the end to keep us in the Football League and I really liked him, a good all-rounder, a good people person, a good coach,

‘He had been at the club as a player, he knew everybody, he was previously the Academy manager so knew all the young players, he loved the club, although maybe that didn’t necessarily work in his favour.

‘Andy’s only downfall was he might have been too emotionally invested in Pompey, that’s the only negative I can say because I liked so much about him.

‘I know he was sacked during my second season, but I would have liked to see him carry on.’

While Devera appeared just once in the seven-game run-in as Pompey secured their Football League status, he established himself as a regular under Awford in the following season in 2014-15.

Installed as permanent boss in May 2014, Awford employed the versatile defender either in a back three, as part of a central-defensive pairing, or at right-back.

In a campaign which would see Pompey finish 16th – the lowest placing in their Football League history – the former Swindon man made 43 appearances.

There was also a goal, memorably arriving in a 3-2 win over Stevenage in October 2014. A late match-winner, it was struck with his left foot from outside the box in front of a jubilant Fratton Park.

Only Paul Jones, Danny Hollands and Jed Wallace featured more for the Blues in that disappointing season, with Awford losing his job four matches before the finish.

That brought Paul Cook to Fratton Park and, in May 2015, Devera was released along with nine others, among them Dan Butler, Nicky Shorey, Wes Fogden, Ben Chorley and Tom Craddock.

At the age of 28, he had played his final Football League match.

He said: ‘We had such a bad season in my first year at Pompey and, while the second one was less bad, it still wasn't great, even though I was happy with my personal performances.

‘Paul Cook came in and I was realistic, I expected to be released by Pompey. Straight away I knew his appointment meant he would be getting rid of everyone, including me.

‘The phone call came and he explained he wasn’t going to extend my contract. I told him it was a good idea, I understood that he needed to freshen things up.

‘Obviously I would have liked to have stayed at Fratton Park and was disappointed, but also happy to move onto the next challenge, even if it did turn out to be my last Football League club.

‘Afterwards I spoke to a few interested clubs, but interest is not the same as wanting to sign you. None of them actually led to me signing a contract and playing for them.

‘Clubs would be saying one thing and not following through, it got to me and I’d almost had enough of football.

‘I have to admit, it was surprising nobody wanted to sign me. I was 28 and coming off the back of what I thought was a good League Two season on a personal level, despite underachieving as a group at Pompey.

‘I guess people must have looked at that and thought something hadn’t gone right there. Now I couldn’t get another Football League club.

‘I moved back to London and was almost at the stage where I was probably going to retire and then, out of the blue, spoke to Danny Hunter, the chairman of Boreham Wood.

‘He told me “Shut up, you’re not retiring, come down here and we’ll sort you out” – and in September 2015 I had a new club.

‘I’d be playing part-time, which really appealed. That involved training two days a week and, the rest of the time, working for my friend’s property management firm, which I enjoyed, nothing too complex, fairly simple stuff.

‘Then, five days after I signed, Boreham Wood announced they were turning full-time and training three times a week!

‘Still, it was agreed I could continue coming in twice a week to enable me to keep my other job, and that is where I remained for two seasons until I quit football for Saudi Arabia.

Devera’s time in Riyadh ended in 2019, when he returned to England to settle in St Albans with partner Gemma, with the couple subsequently welcoming two children – Leo and Libby – into the world.

Now aged 35, he has formed his own property management company, Regal Inventories, based in London.

In September, Devera joined five others in completing the 84-mile walk along the length of Hadrian’s Wall over three days, raising money for Live Luke’s Dreams, a children’s cancer charity.

And, on October 9, Devera will be taking part in the Chicago Marathon, having turned to long-distance running in his post-football existence.

‘There is life after football,’ he added.

‘After leaving Pompey, I was in the uncomfortable position of waiting for someone to tell me what I could do, to come forward and offer me a job, so I took it into my own hands and worked for a friend’s property management company.

‘A lot of players are worried about what they are going to do afterwards, but you needn’t be, everyone will be fine, it will all work out.

‘Then I went to Saudi Arabia and, now I’m back, I’m super busy with my own property management company, which only started in the last six months and is small at the moment, but going really well.

‘I’m not in the football circle any more, I’m not coaching, I’m not the manager, but, despite being a Chelsea fan and without sounding like I’m trying to be a crowd pleaser, I do keep an eye out for Pompey and Swindon.

‘My son is two at the moment, but when the time is right and he starts playing football, I’ll integrate back into it.

‘There are definitely a lot of parts of football that I miss – and definitely a lot of parts I don’t.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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