Zamora: I miss the thrill of playing

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The Albion legend is this week's guest on the Official Brighton & Hove Albion Podcast.

Charlie Hanson

2023-11-28T10:30:00Z

Bobby Zamora made 108 appearances for Albion.

Bobby Zamora has admitted in the most recent edition of the Official Brighton & Hove Albion Podcast that he has begun to miss his playing days.

The striker made 108 appearances for Albion over two spells, scoring 51 goals before calling time on his career at the end of the 2015/16 season.

“I miss football!” the now Albion ambassador said. “That’s what I am up to in the mornings, waking up and realising that I am never going to able to go out there and do it again. I think that’s probably because my body is broken!

Bobby Zamora and Glenn Murray never played together for the Albion.

“There’s also that realisation knowing you can’t even go and play on a Sunday with a couple of pals. I am enjoying retirement though, I am spinning a few plates. I am loving my fishing, loving my adventures with Ali Hamidi [on their ITV4 show about fishing] and doing bits for TV with him.

“I enjoyed not having to get up [when I first retired]. When I came to retirement it was painful, I couldn’t carry on playing with the aches and the pains day-to-day. It was a nice relief, not having to take painkillers, anti-inflammatories that aren’t good for your stomach and liver.

“Christmas and New Year, being able to go skiing for the first time, it’s really nice. I am seven years into retirement now, but after three or four years you start to miss it; the boys and the banter in the dressing room.

“That realisation that you’re never going to walk out at Old Trafford or Anfield again, only seeing it on the box [is tough]. The Premier League is getting bigger and better every year. When you’re playing every week you just don’t realise, it’s becomes normal.”

The striker discussed a range of topics on the podcast, including his time with Albion and his climb up to the Premier League.

Bobby did answer one of the major questions we’d all like to know the answer to – could he have played in the same team as former striker Glenn Murray (who is also co-host of the podcast)?

“I think we could have done, in the right side,” Bobby explained. "I was thinking about the side that I played in, I was up top on my own, Paul Brooker and Nathan Jones were on either side and they were just up and down getting balls into the box.

“In the right side, in the side that we currently have or Graham Potter’s team, with that many balls being cut back into the box [we could have played together].”