Organized football at my primary school in Leicester the mid 60s was essentially non-existent. My secondary school only officially played rugby which I was fairly good at, but always resented not being able to play football so my heart was never into rugby. I played football every day in pickup games at lunchtimes. After uni for bachelors and PhD, I moved to the US, got married had children and by coaching my kids soccer team I was connected to players in the adult soccer league in the area. So in my mid 30s I finally got to play on a proper soccer team! Since then I played once or twice a week on over-30 and over-40 teams and finally hung up the boots in my mid 50s, with a knee injury. I thought when coming from England the standard of soccer in US would not be that great, only to find teams with US college-level players and sprinkled with ex-pros who had emigrated from Europe and South America. Glad to say I more than held my own as a mid.