How House of the Dragon actor Matt Smith could have played for Leicester City

He’s appearing in the new Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon – yet this isn’t how actor Matt Smith envisioned his life would turn out.

The former Dr Who star, 39, used to be a promising footballer with the Leicester City youth team and only began considering acting after his football career was cut short. 

He was tipped to become a professional footballer, playing also for Nottingham Forest youth team – yet an injury at the age of 16 forced him to give up the game and take up drama for a career instead. 

‘It was very tough though,’ he revealed in a recently resurfaced interview with Esquire magazine in 2010. ‘I remember crying, because that was all I’d ever invested in. I hadn’t really considered acting.’ 

Smith is starring in the new Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, where he plays Daemon Targaryen (pictured)

In another interview with Kirsty Young on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Matt revealed that he had felt unfulfilled. 

He said: ‘I felt like I was so certain that that is what I was going to do.  It was very difficult for me to tell people that I had been released because the vain part of me was like, I am that and I am the footballer, you know, and at school I was the footballer and suddenly I wasn’t that.’  

During the interview he revealed that his drama teacher told him he was never meant to be a footballer and was a really good actor. 

And at the age of 27, Smith was the youngest ever actor to take on the role of Dr Who, but said he wasn’t worried about the challenge.

Smith told Kirsty Young on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs that he felt unfulfilled after his football dreams had vanished and it was difficult for his teenage self to find his new path

Since then his career has gone from strength to strength, playing Prince Philip in The Crown and now landing the part in in the Game of Thrones prequel (pictured) 

Since then his career has gone from strength to strength, playing Prince Philip in The Crown and now landing the part in in the Game of Thrones prequel.   

In the new series Matt portrays Daemon Targaryen in the new House of the Dragon show. 

Set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, the character was the most experienced warrior of his time, wielding the Valyrian steel blade Dark Sister.

It was recently revealed that Smith switched up his television and film appearances to star in Noel Gallagher’s music video We’re On Our Way Now. 

Noel has been on the music scene for decades, yet he insisted he still doesn’t like the idea of videos for his songs, saying he ‘f*****g hates’ them ‘with a passion’.

Yet on his friend Matt’s appearance, he said: ‘One night he was round our house and as he was leaving at four in the morning I said “Ey mate you don’t fancy being in a video do you?” He said “yeah no problem”. And I sort of held him to it.’

Admitting he doesn’t really know what’s happening in the video, Noel added: ‘The second video follows on from this one, so he’s [Matt] in the next one too’.