Man Utd youngster who won medal despite playing for the club just four times is now living a very different life

Former Manchester United youngster Richard Eckersley now has a very different and interesting career path after hanging up his boots.

The Salford-born defender came through the youth team ranks at United and made his debut for his boyhood club in 2009 under Sir Alex Ferguson, when the Old Trafford club were the reigning Premier League and European champions.

Eckersley made his first team debut in January of that year, as he came off the bench for Fabio in an FA Cup fixture at home against Tottenham Hotspur.

He later made his Premier League debut as he replaced Gary Neville in a 5-0 victory against West Bromwich Albion.

Eckersley won a medal that season he was named on the bench for the 2009 League Cup final against Spurs, which United won and the defender claimed a winners' memento.

He left United at the end of that season after he turned down a new contract at United and went on to join Burnley.

Eckersley's career then included loan spells at Plymouth Argyle, Bradford City and Bury away from Turf Moor.

The next few years were spent Stateside in the MLS as he joined firstly Toronto FC and then the New York Red Bulls.

He later joined Oldham Athletic, before ultimately deciding to walk away from football in 2016.

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Since retiring from the game professionally, Eckersley now has a new and very interesting career, which is not a typical one for a former footballer.

He has since opened a zero waste shop with his wife Nicola called Earth.Food.Love - which was the UK's first - which is in Totnes in Devon.

Eckersley, who is vegan, also runs ReRooted, which makes plant based milk drink products and are transported across the UK.

Explaining how the decision came about and to relocate from Manchester to Devon, Eckersley told the Manchester Evening News: "We sat on the beach (near Totnes) and said that we wanted to make this our home. Obviously we need to do something while we're here, we can't not just do anything. We wanted to invest back into the community. The idea of a shop came about, and initially the idea was that it was going to be a wholefoods shop.

"There was already a wholefoods shop in Totnes and we thought about what else we could do that makes us unique. The idea of a zero-waste aspect wholefoods shop was unique and would draw people in. That was how it started."

He added: "The idea came from having a contact in Germany about a shop that was completely zero-waste, where people would take their own containers, and we were like 'why don’t we do that? That's a great idea'. Plastic was very much at the forefront of people's minds.

"It has been eight years now since that decision. It was initially about finding a place [to live] first and then thinking about what we could do here, and how we could invest back into the local community. That is how it all happened."