‘Horrible’: 33-year-old says playing for Sunderland made him fall out of love with football

Jason Steele has admitted that his time at Sunderland was ‘horrible’.

The goalkeeper revealed on BBC Sport’s Football Focus that he jumped at the chance to leave Wearside five years ago.

Jason Steele joined Sunderland from Blackburn Rovers after they were relegated to the Championship, initially as the number one.

The Middlesbrough academy graduate endured a dreadful year on Wearside, making numerous errors and receiving consistent criticism from fans.

Steele kept one clean sheet in all competitions before a humiliating red card against QPR effectively ended his time at the club. He made only three more appearances before the Black Cats were relegated.

Steele went on to make a shock move to Brighton in the Premier League, where he has risen through the ranks in recent seasons, starting nine games in all competitions this season.

Steele, 33, was originally a back-up after moving to the south coast, but he admitted he was still happy because it meant leaving Sunderland.

 

 

Steele told Glenn Murray on Football Focus: “”I think it was more from where I came from, in terms of being at Sunderland for a year.”

“I’ve never watched the [Sunderland Til I Die] documentary and I don’t think I ever will. Because it’s a period in your life that you’ve moved on from now. By the end, I was thinking, I’m not sure this is for me anymore.

“I had three young kids, married, I lived in the area, and there were times when I didn’t even want to take the kids to school. That’s how horrible it was up there. Getting beat every week and you don’t want to look at your phone, you don’t want to leave the house.

“The opportunity came to come down here [to Brighton] and I don’t think I even asked how much I was getting paid. I was just like, yeah! It was a case of falling in love with football again, basically.”

How did Jason Steele become a Premier League goalkeeper?

During his one-year stint on Wearside, Jason Steele was possibly one of the worst goalkeepers I’ve ever seen.

It wasn’t just him, though. The goalie joined the club around the same time as Lee Camp and Robbin Ruiter, the former being the worst ‘keeper I’ve ever seen.

They were all terrible, and it was difficult to see Steele move on to bigger things after playing so poorly for us, but I think we all want to forget such a horrible time just as much as he does.