Brandon Williams has been training with League Two Rotherham in pre-season as he looks to resurrect his football career.
The 25-year-old has not played since August 2025 when he made a solitary appearance for Hull City in the Championship.
He departed the club just six months into his one-year contract.
The last time he played a full 90 minutes was in November 2023 when he was on loan at Ipswich.
The former Man United defender has undergone a number of off-field issues that have derailed his career.
Speaking to The Athletic, Williams was unsure if he would be offered a contract by the League Two outfit.
They are managed by Alex Bruce, son of Man United legend Steve, and Steve McClaren is their director of football.
“I’ve let a lot of people down, to be honest, and I want to prove a lot of people wrong as well,” he said. “That’s one thing that is left to do in my life, to get back onto the football pitch and show what I can do.”
Williams added: “I know it’s not going to be a quick process, I know I’m not going to be in the Premier League next year. I’m ready to climb the mountain and get back to the top of it.”
Brandon Williams’ off-field issues
Williams’ lowest moment came when he was given a 14-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for dangerous driving after causing a crash while speeding at 99mph in a 70mph zone.
The Crown Prosecution Service said he was driving with a balloon at his mouth when he collided with another car and hit the central reservation.
He was also ordered to complete 180 hours of community service and banned from driving for three years.
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“It made me grow up as a person and realise that this is real life, this isn’t GTA (Grand Theft Auto) or something like that,” Williams said. “It was a proper wake-up call. Since then it was about building and changing a reputation that I had and that’s not me.”
Man United release
The Red Devils let Williams go at the end of his contract in the summer of 2024.
This ended his 16-year association with the club he made 51 appearances for in total.
He said: “At the time I was just like, ‘Whatever, it is what it is’, but I was in a dark space,” he says. “And then a couple of months passed and I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, what have I done?’. Then it hit me that was what I’d known all my life from seven years of age.
“It was a gutting feeling, especially when you are by yourself and you’re just thinking about it. It’s a dark place.”
Williams added: “I didn’t want to play football again. It was difficult but I just knew I had to go and train for my mental side of things — I knew I had to do something.
“I had no plans on going back to football for that whole year. It went on until the start of the new year that I was like, ‘Right, I miss this now, I’m ready to go back, I am ready to get back into football’.”
