Jobs4Football meets Dan Pybus
Jobs4Football spoke to Dan Pybus, an English centre midfielder playing for Dunfermline Athletic, about his journey. Dan’s career as a footballer shows the level of motivation an athlete has to maintain off the pitch as well as on it.
Dan’s professional career started at Sunderland after signing a 3-year contract on his 17th Birthday. “I got offered the contract at 16, but obviously my parents kept it from me because they wanted me to do well in my exams, but I found out before my exams sneakily enough.” Dan is from Newcastle and at 16 finding out he had his professional career ahead of him felt surreal to him.
“To be offered a 3-year professional contract, was a bit of a dream come true to me and then you’re just counting down the days to your birthday. That’s the time where you have really got to knuckle down and kick on.” The Sunderland starlet had a rough start trying to prove himself in his first year as a professional. Dan remembers how it wasn’t what he had expected his career to start off like but as a youngster there was time and room for improvement, which Dan acted on.
“My 2nd year I really kicked on, I was Captain of the Youth team and had a really good season.” Dan ended up scoring 16 goals in 24 games for his side, which showed his passion for the game and the motivation of a professional athlete to improve his repertoire of football. His performance was an astounding one for a youngster playing no.8 and was fortunate enough to represent England 4 times during 16/17, and made his debut against Scotland.
Dan left the Black Cats half way through his 3rd year and moved to Bradford. “I left Sunderland because I thought I was ready for 1st team football, which looking back at it I think I made the decision a year too soon” After the success of his time at Sunderland, Dan believed he was ready for the next step in his career, but didn’t expect the jump to the 1st team to be as enormous as it was. Pybus had started well at Bradford with an impressive pre season scoring 4 in 6 games. This impressed Manager at the time Stuart McCall, which led to Dan starting in the league cup against Doncaster for the full 90 minutes.
Stuart McCall was sacked after six straight defeats and then came new Manager Simon Grayson. Unfortunately, the new manager didn’t have the same connections to Pybus and dropped him to the reserves. “That was my first real experience of changing managers … I got put back down with the reserves, which was a reality check, it was tough to take and come the end of the season I left Bradford City”
Pybus desired game time and made the conscious decision on Norway for 3 months, specifically Tonsberg. “I was 19/20 and I went up there for 1st team football, it was an experience and it took me out of my comfort zone.” The style of the Norwegian game left some to be desired for Dan as it wasn’t the same type of football, he was comfortable with. “The culture of football was totally different to what it is in England and Scotland … The tempo of the game was a lot slower than usual; it was very much you attack we defend and vice versa. Teams were very hard to beat it was low scoring games especially in the division I was in.”
After suffering from an injury he had to return to England to recover and had to have surgery, therefore missing the rest of the season. Dan was given a trial at Queen of the South after his recovery and after 2 days signed for the club. “This was my first real chance to play week in week out. 1st season, I kept my head down and tried to get used to Scottish football, which has a very fast tempo, physical and sometimes not as much passing as you would like.”
In his 2nd year at Queen of the South he improved upon himself and took what he had learnt the season prior but unfortunately suffered an injury which lasted 2 months but was able to still have 20+ games under his belt that season. “Now I feel fully adjusted, I feel up to speed with it. It’s the normal now for me and I’m really enjoying it”
Pybus signed for Dunfermline in July of 2021, and I was eager to hear how he would compare himself now to the Dan who signed back in July. “Coming from Queen of the South to Dunfermline, which is a massive club. I under achieved this season definitely but I would definitely say I’ve grown as a player but I think that comes with age and the number of games you play. You mature more, you understand the game better and understand the position more as well as the league.”
I wanted to ask Dan if the younger Pybus would have pictured himself where he is now. “I have under achieved myself, but you have just got to keep your head down, work hard and see where you end up. My game has totally changed from Sunderland, coming through one academy in England is very technical and quite slow, similar to Norway; whereas here it’s 100 miles an hour, frantic and physical. My off the ball gameplay has improved massively, looking back on it from Sunderland I didn’t think it would happen because it was one of the weaker parts of my gameplay, but you have got to adapt your style to the league you are in.
Dan’s career is rather scattered due to a spell of injuries and not achieving what’s within reach at past clubs. I was intrigued as to how an athlete like Dan stays motivated throughout their career. “When I left Bradford, I had 9-12 months out of football. I was home every day, running, keeping myself fit and there was a lot of moments where I thought, this is me done, I’ve had too long out of the game, I’ll be forgotten about. I was ready to wrap it in but my mum said to me you can do anything in the world at any age, but you can’t play football professionally. I thought I’ll have another go and I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to go to Queen of the South, and I have never looked back since. I can thank my mum and family for that.”
Lastly, I asked Dan what his predictions are for Dunfermline this season and what lies ahead in Dan’s career. “For me personally, I just want to help the club stay up and do as well as I possibly can. I love it here at Dunfermline, it’s a great club and they are only going one way. In the future I want to do as well as I possibly can on the pitch as well as off the pitch.”