Matthew Connolly already has designs on a new career after football

Bright future: Matthew Connolly is confident QPR can gain promotion to the Premier League this season
11 April 2012

Anyone who has watched Matthew Connolly in a Queens Park Rangers shirt this season will know just how much the defender is making his mark on the Championship. Back in his home town of Hatfield, however, he is leaving a different kind of impression.

It is not that the locals are underwhelmed by the defender's performances because, with his help, Rangers look set for promotion to the Premier League having virtually sat at the top of the table from day one.

Connolly has made another kind of impact on the community due to the fact he is the proud owner of C16 - the only tattoo parlour in Hatfield.

It is unusual for any 23-year-old to run any kind of business, let alone a footballer who appears to have a very bright future in front of him.

Most people would expect a player of that age to be simply enjoying the perks that come with such a glamorous day job. Yet Connolly is the exception to the rule, as he explained to Standard Sport this week: "My dad brought me up very well and you always see stories in the paper about players who have seen their contracts run out and not get a new club, or they get injured.

"Seeing my team-mate, Jamie Mackie, break his leg earlier this year was another reminder. I know he will come back strong but it could have been worse and he may have been told he won't play again.

"You need to focus on life after football and that is what I'm doing now. Football isn't there for ever. You can do coaching but it is not something I want to go into.

"I wanted to create something myself. I was always interested in business, especially as football is such a short career. You need to learn things for when you finish and I saw this as a good opportunity to broaden my horizons.

"Some people ask me why tattoos as I don't have any myself. It was simply because there was just a space in the market. They are so popular right now, many people have one and in the town I live in there wasn't a shop."

None of Rangers' senior players has journeyed up the A1 to ask for a discount at C16 - "they all go to the same guy and are happy with him".

But some of Rangers' younger players have visited the studio and Connolly is not ruling out having a tattoo himself.

"I'm not sure," he said. "Never say never but I just haven't seen one I like."

This is certainly no hobby or play-thing.

Connolly takes it as seriously as his football career and loves nothing more than going through the paperwork with his accountant or coming up with new ideas of how to advertise and improve.

It would be understandable if some QPR fans are concerned that he could be a little distracted by all the pressures of being in charge of his own store, particularly ahead of big games such as the visit of their nearest challengers Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

However, he added: "When I set it up I knew football came first. I have a fantastic tattooist and people in the shop run it for me.

"When I finish training I usually head to the shop to see how things are going or I may just socialise.

"Everything is under control and business is going very well. We have been open for a year and a half now so it obviously hasn't affected my football and the good thing is we are always busy."

Connolly's experiences at Arsenal certainly taught him to take nothing for granted. He is not the first promising youth product to find first-team opportunities hard to come by there and was sold to QPR for £1million in 2008 after making just two appearances for Arsene Wenger's side.

Given the number of problems that Arsenal have consistently had with the back four due to injuries and lack of form, the sale of a talented Englishman is even more surprising.

He has no regrets, though, and is already looking at the dream scenario of returning to the Emirates Stadium in a QPR shirt next season.
Connolly added: "I don't feel I have a point to prove to Arsenal. They gave me a fair crack, I had a great time and I am where I am now because of the great coaching they gave me.

"It would be really good to play against them next season and we are on course.

"However, there is more pressure on QPR to go up now because we have led from the front and we have more to lose.

"We have been top for a long time and we deserve to be where we are. It is up to us to carry it on for the rest of the season."

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