Premier League star training to become a pilot and helped fly his team-mates in pre-season

A current defender has revealed that he is training to become a pilot when he retires, having already spent time in the cockpit. Leif Davis is just 24 years old but is already planning for life after football by chasing another dream of his.

Davis, who recently signed a new contract at , is an aviation enthusiast and spends much of his downtime playing Microsoft Flight Simulator. He is hoping to earn a pilot's licence so that he can fly real planes when he decides to hang up his boots.

At a press conference earlier this week, Davis 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 Flight Sim, 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."

Davis even got the chance to sit in the cockpit as Ipswich flew out to Austria for their pre-season tour and left the pilot impressed with his knowledge of the landing procedures.

"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," he explained.

"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.

"He was shocked. 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."

Earlier this year, Davis explained that he caught the aviation bug through his grandfather, who took him to watch planes at the local airport when he was growing up.

"My granddad used to work in aviation and he always used to take me to Newcastle Airport after school," Davis told the .

"Every day we'd watch the planes land and take off for hours. At weekends I'd go for the full day. He sadly passed but I kept up the interest. Eventually, after football, I want to get my private pilot's licence. I know he would be proud if I did that."