Former Albion footballer is train driver apprentice

Former Brighton & Hove Albion striker Jake Robinson is training as a Southern Rail train driver

When current Brighton & Hove Albion manager Fabian Hurzeler decided to retire from professional football aged 23, he turned to coaching.

It's a path many footballers take after their playing career ends but one former Albion striker has chosen a very different route - becoming a trainee Southern Rail train driver.

Jake Robinson, who played for the club between 2003 and 2009 and made nearly 700 career appearances, is three months into an apprenticeship with the company.

The 38-year-old said he realised that although he hoped as a teenager he'd "make millions and play for England, the reality was that one day I'd have to get a job", he told BBC Radio Sussex at Worthing station.

Jake Robinson lifts the match ball above his head after completing his hat-trick against Northwich Victoria in the FA Cup in 2006

"The further I got into my career and the older I got and the more everything started to ache a bit, I started to give some serious thought about what I wanted to do," he said.

Robinson made his debut for Brighton in a cup match on 24 September 2003 away at then Premier League side Middlesbrough. Three weeks later, he became Albion's youngest ever goal scorer with a late strike against Forest Green Rovers, nine days before his 17th birthday.

One of his proudest moments in a Brighton shirt was scoring two hat-tricks in two weeks in 2006, the first in a 3-0 victory against Huddersfield, and the second in an FA Cup game against non-league Northwich Victoria.

Robinson went on to have a successful career in the Football League, before some prolific stints in non-league at Whitehawk and Billericay. He now plays at county level for Newhaven with his two brothers, Ian and Lee Robinson.

He added: "I'm very proud of my career, I wouldn't change it for the world. All I ever wanted to do was be a professional footballer, I'm lucky I lived out that dream."

His sights are now set on the railway rather than the back of the net.

"The more I looked into it, the more I thought it might suit me," he said.

Asked whether he will be working on busy matchdays at Albion's 32,000-seat Amex Stadium, he said: "It will be like the story is complete for me having trained there as a kid, and now my new career that's going to hopefully last me the rest of my life. So it's full circle."

Robinson playing against Luton Town in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in 2009