Ex-Tottenham hard man in shock career change after retiring aged 32

Paul Miller spent a decade of his life going toe-to-toe with some of the toughest strikers in English football. The former Tottenham defender played more than 280 games for the north London club between 1977 and 1987, winning two FA Cups and the UEFA Cup. But after hanging up his boots at the age of 32, Miller decided against following the well-trodden path into coaching. Instead, he started again.

Now 66, the former Spurs hard man has carved out a second career in the City of London, having worked in insurance, private banking and financial services before taking up a new role with CMC Markets - Everton's front-of-shirt sponsors - earlier this year. It is a remarkable transformation for someone who left school at 15 without qualifications. "I re-educated myself," Miller told the Liverpool Echo. "I'd left school at 15 without any qualifications but by the time I'd finished playing at 32, I didn't want to stay in the game any longer doing coaching and I felt I had a lot more to offer."

Miller's playing career had already taken him to the highest level. He was part of the Tottenham side that won the FA Cup in 1981 and 1982 before helping them lift the UEFA Cup in 1984, scoring against Anderlecht in the first leg of the final in Brussels.

He also came agonisingly close to winning the league, only for Tottenham to be overtaken by Howard Kendall's Everton side in 1984/85. Those days of battling with the likes of Graeme Sharp and Andy Gray are now a world away from Miller's working life.

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After retiring, he entered the insurance industry and became a Lloyd's broker before moving into private banking, working for three different banks. He had grown up in east London, just half a mile from the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, and had always been fascinated by the City.

"My mum cleaned offices and emptied the bins in the City when I was a child," he said. "I'd grown up knowing about the City of London, I love it, it's a very special place."

His latest career move came about through a long-standing friendship with CMC Markets founder Baron Peter Cruddas. Miller has known the self-made billionaire for around 26 years after the pair met at a Save the Children event at Buckingham Palace. Despite supporting rival north London club Arsenal, Cruddas became the unlikely catalyst for Miller's latest chapter.

When CMC Markets agreed its sponsorship deal with Everton, Miller contacted his old friend and asked whether there might be an opportunity for him at the company. Within a month, he had joined.

Miller now starts work at around 7.30am and remains involved in the city, believing that having a purpose and continuing to work can be hugely beneficial later in life. "I think it keeps you young when you're working," he said.

His own career has also given him a strong view on how professional footballers should prepare for life after the game. While modern players earn vastly more than Miller did during the 1970s and 1980s, he believes financial security alone is not enough.

"Life doesn't stop after you play football, it's just starting and you're still a young man," he said. "I started playing football at seven years old and had to finish when I was 32 through an injury. Not many carry on too long after that age and you've got to find a new purpose."

That search for a new purpose has taken Miller a long way from White Hart Lane - and into a completely different world. But football has never disappeared from his life.

He remains a regular at Tottenham and continues to follow the game closely, meaning the former defender has been able to combine his two worlds - football and finance - in a career few former players could have imagined when he was battling Premier League strikers four decades ago.