Joe Hancott: 'I'm Portsmouth's youngest-ever player - but quit football aged 20 after falling out of love with it. I hated it, it drained me'

As a promising left-back, he was crowned the youngest player in Blues post-war history following a Checkatrade Trophy outing in August 2017.

Aged 16 years and 161 days at the time of the Fratton Park encounter with Fulham Under-21s, the first-year scholar was required to collect his GCSE exam results the following week.

Yet four years later, Hancott walked away from football having lost his love for playing the game.

An ACL injury sustained on the training ground would devastate a once sparkling career. Despite battling back, the Isle of Wight youngster was forced to accept he wasn’t the same player.

In October 2021 and no longer able to justify his selection at Bognor Regis Town, a disillusioned Hancott quit to focus on pursuing teaching ambitions. He was 20.

Now, having graduated with an Open University degree, he works as a full-time teacher at his former school in Ryde.

‘I wanted to be out of it. Not Pompey as a club, professional football as a whole. I couldn’t wait,’ Hancott told The News.

‘Some people would say “What the hell?”, but I fell out of love with it completely. When I say fell out of love, weirdly I still loved watching it, I loved watching the Premier League and my club Spurs, watching the Football League and my mates performing at non-league level.

‘But I didn’t like playing it at the time – and that’s fairly common among footballers. It could be down to pressure or maybe going through a 12-year Academy process had drained that fun out of me.

‘Perhaps it was due to commuting from the Isle of Wight four times a week to train or play, with your body developing and growing yet constantly getting battered on different playing surfaces.

‘Or it could be you’ve reached the point where you have done it for that long and it’s not quite worked out. You’ve tried to come back from injury and, yet again, it hasn’t worked out, so you think “That’s not for me any more”.

‘Pompey kept extending my contract because they wanted to help me get back to full fitness, but it got to the point where I wasn’t fussed about playing professional football anymore – and I told them that.

‘They weren’t going to keep me anyway, they knew how I was feeling, they knew I was struggling physically. They were aware I was looking at non-league and getting into teaching.

‘I told them: “I want to get out. Thank you for everything, but I've had enough”. And I was buzzing, buzzing to start another chapter.’

Identified as a defender of potential by prolific Isle of Wight talent spotters Roger and Andy ‘Pud’ North, Hancott joined Pompey at the age of eight.

Catching the FastCat from his Ryde home for three training sessions a week, plus a weekend match, his age group consisted of the likes of Josh Flint, Leon Maloney and Brad Lethbridge, who would all progress into Kenny Jackett’s first-team.

Yet it was Hancock who led the way, being handed his debut in August 2017 – thereby breaking Gary O’Neil’s 17-and-a-half year record set in January 2000.

He added: ‘The Academy had a match on the Saturday morning and afterwards we went to Fratton Park to watch the first-team’s season opener against Rochdale.

‘Tareiq Holmes-Dennis went down with a knee injury shortly before half-time, you could tell it was bad, and a few of the lads were joking saying I might get a chance. Not likely, I had just left school!

‘On the Monday, I was asked to train with the first-team, then, not long after, was selected to play against Fulham Under-21s. I had no idea it was going to make me the club’s youngest post-war player.

‘I was 16 and didn’t believe I was good enough to be there. In my own age group I did, but not in that first-team environment. In football you have to go in with a bit of arrogance and believe you’re good enough, even when young. I never had enough of that self-belief at times,

‘I didn’t do too badly for my debut, although afterwards Kenny Jackett hardly said anything to me, just a “Well done”. The previous day he told me I’d be playing and that was it!

‘He never said anything to me or the young lads. He was always nice enough, pleasant and polite, but it was “How are you?”, that was it. It’s not like he ever gave me any real advice, although, to be fair, I was still only young and part of the youth-team.

‘I didn’t make another squad in that 2017-18 season – and rightly so. I was never good enough at that age, I needed to play more in the Academy and the reserves.

‘Besides, Brandon Haunstrup was already there at left-back and the manager then signed Damien McCrory and Dion Donohue. They didn’t need me.

‘My first-team experience was a bonus, I didn’t ever think it was going to lead to a regular starting spot.’

It would be another two years before Hancott was handed his second competitive Pompey appearance, by that time a third-year scholar.

In July 2019, he accompanied Jackett’s first-team squad to Portmarnock, Dublin, for a pre-season training camp, netting in an 11-0 romp over Irish side UCD after appearing as a left winger.

Now aged 18, he featured in the Blues’ opening two Leasing.com Trophy fixtures against Norwich Under-21s and Oxford United in 2019-20, while spent time on loan at the Rocks.

However, on the eve of a Hampshire Senior Cup fixture at the Hawks in October 2019, he sustained ACL damage to his right knee – and never played for Pompey again.

He said: ‘We were training on the back pitch at Roko, working on shape ahead of the match, and it was quite wet. I ran with the ball before passing it off and changing direction – and my knee snapped, you could hear it.

‘It was a freak thing and then, five months into rehab Covid struck, and we were in lockdown. Suddenly my recovery programme was taking place in the back garden of my parents’ home in Ryde while watching Zoom.

‘Pompey’s physios were brilliant, doing all they could to help, but there’s only so much I can do from a garden. There weren’t even any gyms open. It was rubbish.

‘Without the Covid outbreak, I would have had a better chance of a complete recovery. That’s nobody’s fault and I’m not using that as an excuse, there’s definitely more I could have done in terms of before and after.

‘I probably didn’t look after myself, to be honest. I ate what I wanted, I wasn’t as dedicated as others. It wasn’t my life like it was for some. I wasn’t as good in the gym building muscles as team-mates.

‘When I was out on the training pitch and in matches, I gave it 100 per cent, and certainly didn’t like losing. However, when I turned 18, I probably started going out more than I should have if I was a top professional.

‘But that injury recovery process during Covid was unfortunate. Then, when lockdown ended, I was kept separate from the first-team because of coronavirus, with the youth-team training away from them – and then I had further complications with my knee.

‘I needed a second operation to clear up few things, more of a minor injury, but it still took a bit of time to return and, by then, the love for football was going.

‘I was 19, playing for the youth team against the Hawks’ development side in my first game back following two surgeries – and was awful. On pitch I was thinking “I can’t ever see me getting back to the level I was”.

‘I couldn't run the same, I wasn’t as quick, I wasn’t as strong. Physicality, power and pace, I’d lost it all. No, I can’t do this.’

It was during his initial rehabilitation from the ACL that Hancott enrolled on an Open University degree course in sport and business management at Salford University in September 2020.

Within six months, he walked away from Fratton Park demoralised with football, although with wheels in motion for a potential career in teaching as a fall-back option.

Upon his Pompey release in March 2021, Hancock returned to the Rocks, where he previously enjoyed a successful loan spell, combining non-league football with his studies.

However, he quit Nyewood Lane in October 2021 – and vowed to focus on an alternative career.

‘I didn't know what else I wanted to do, that was the hardest bit. It was all I had known, I spent 12 years with Pompey,’ said Hancott, whose three first-team outings all arrived in the EFL Trophy.

‘But I was never in a fantasy world with football. Some people dream of playing in the Premier League, blah, blah, blah, but I was very realistic. Probably too realistic, to be honest.

‘The chances were I wasn’t going to play professionally again, so I needed something to fall back on. What I found was an Open University course aimed at people like myself, coming out of professional football or wanting to better themselves.

‘Fortunately for me, I have good parents and they encouraged me to get back into education and do the degree, which was a blessing.

‘I was already studying for it when I left Pompey and moved to Bognor to try to get back my love for football – instead it killed it. I literally hated football by that time, which was no-one’s fault at Bognor, they are good people.

‘That second stint there was horrid, I didn’t believe in myself, my knee and hamstring didn’t feel right, and I wasn’t fit. I wasn’t at the level required and was wasting their time – so quit football.’

Hancock initially worked as a sports coach at Niton Primary School, Ventnor, while continuing his degree studies.

Then, in September 2021, he secured a job as a higher level teaching assistant (HLTA) at Ryde Academy, before appointed full-time last summer.

As for football, it’s now back on the agenda, having made six appearances for Wessex League Premier Division side Cowes Sports.

The 22-year-old added: ‘If the school kids ask, I will tell them about my background in football and give a bit of advice based on my experiences.

‘I don’t really mention that I’m Pompey’s youngest post-war player, although some have worked it out. I’m certainly not a “Do you know who I am” person!

‘That leg has never felt right since. I had a hamstring graft as part of my ACL operation and now there’s definitely something wrong with my hamstring too, I can feel it constantly.

‘Although I’m back playing, I’m not as quick, I can't do a full-out sprint like I used to. Some of the lads will probably wonder how this guy played professionally because I am nowhere where I was, but I sort of make a joke about it and get on with things.

‘I have told myself that, should I get any more injuries this season, then that’s it, I won’t continue beyond it.

‘Football is no longer my life’s priority. I have another job, another career, so it’s not something I take too seriously. And I’m happy with that.’