I’m a rising Premier League star and been tipped for England – but I’m training to be an AIRLINE PILOT when I retire
THE SKY’S the limit for Leif Davis, who has propelled Ipswich from League One to the Prem.
Attacking left-back Davis has even been tipped as an England international after his stunning rise with the Tractor Boys.
And he will still be aiming high once he hangs up his boots — in a new career as an airline pilot.
Aviation-mad Davis, 24, spends his down-time on the controls of a flight simulator.
He said: “A private pilot licence would be the start and I can decide what I want to do after what is hopefully a successful career.
“I taught myself to do it. The software is called FlightSim, which is where other people in the world are also on it.
“There will be someone, say, on a computer in London and he will be doing air traffic control.
“So if I’m flying I have got to speak to him while doing that as well. It is like real life but on the computer.
“It’s a thing I’ve always done. You don’t have to look at your phone, you don’t have to think about football, it just switches you off from everything.”
Ipswich travel to Brentford on Saturday — just five miles from Heathrow Airport — still searching for that elusive first Premier League win in over 24 years.
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Kieran McKenna’s side, who jumped from League One to the top flight in successive seasons, have drawn four games and lost four so far.
It has been a steep learning curve for the Town players, few of whom have played at the top level before.
But Davis insists his hobby of coaxing virtual Boeings and Airbuses into the air has helped him improve on the pitch.
He said: “You have got to focus on that one thing — or your plane is going down!
“You have to focus on it all the time but that focus helps me take it into training.
“You know what you have got to do when you are focused — how good you can be.
“It’s when you switch off for a second that’s when disasters can happen.”
Former Leeds man Davis revealed he has spent time in the wide blue yonder in the cockpit of a light aircraft.
Impressing experienced pilots
And he surprised an airline pilot with his knowledge of how to land a jet.
He said: “I have been up there a few times in a little Cessna but not flying a big plane.
“I actually got the chance when we went to Austria for pre-season to go in the cockpit and do the landing with the pilot, which was my highlight of the year.
“It was the best thing I have ever done in my life, just seeing in person how they do it.
“The captain was talking us through it and I’d say, ‘Oh, you are not doing that’ and he would say, ‘I’m just about to!’
“I actually knew a lot of what he was doing and he was shocked.
Surprise Prem pilot ace
“He kept looking at me as though, ‘How do you know this?’ but I just kept my mouth shut.
“It was mad how I knew what he was doing.”
Davis, who has just penned a new four-year deal at Town, would not be the first celebrity pilot should he get his wings eventually.
Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson has flown Liverpool and Rangers to European matches in the past.
And Davis revealed that he is not the only current Prem star who likes to get airborne.
He said: “I think Chris Wood at Nottingham Forest has got his pilot licence as well.
‘Welcome back to the Prem’
“I don’t think it’s just me that would love to do it, there are other players who have their licence already.
“It’s a different hobby to everyone else. Look at Ben White, he doesn’t even watch football.
“When I was at Leeds with him he hated watching it. Well, probably not hated it but his hobby was something else.”
Davis is the only Portman Road promotion hero to play every minute of league action so far, starting with a narrow 2-1 defeat at home to Liverpool on the opening day.
The defender, who made two top-flight appearances off the bench at Leeds, said: “It was welcome back to the Prem!
“When we got promoted it didn’t sink in properly until that first day when we were in the tunnel. You look to your left and there is Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk.
“I’ve loved every minute of it even though we have not yet got the win we wanted.”