Former Coventry City forward Leon McKenzie will play his last ever game today when he retires from the game after Corby Town's Conference North game against Boston United.
In an interview with Corby's programme, McKenzie said: "It wasn’t just a case of waking up one morning and thinking ‘I want to finish’,
I’d been enjoying my time playing for Corby both playing and being a ‘figure’ and an experienced player. Chris Plummer and Mark Peters have been different class with me and I respect them both greatly and the lads that are at the club are good young players who are starting to find themselves and believe more.
“I’d been considering retirement for a while and will be starting a career in professional boxing in the near future, with my first fight hopefully being around March time. With this in mind I thought I had to retire. In addition to that I simply don’t play enough anymore because of my body and in particular my knee. I was brought in by the ex-manager and I wanted to come along and help out. Everyone at the club knew that I was probably going to retire and because of that I was only ever on a pay-as-you-play deal so it was never about the money. When I think about everything here, I think to myself ‘what a fantastic club’ with the supporters being great and the boys have been fantastic. It’s a new chapter in my life and it’s something I want to fulfil.”
“The thing I’ll miss most about football is scoring goals. It’s all about changing games and the best aspect of it is making people happy. When people look back at the career of Leon McKenzie, I’d like them to think that I was a goalscorer who at the same time would always give my best when I entered the field, no matter what the circumstances were. People looked at me as someone who they wanted in their team because they knew I was going to fight and I always have done.”
More on this: http://www.corbytownfc.co.uk/news/2012/mckenzie-announces-retirement/