Luke Williams talks after going viral, taking a job as a customer care assistant at Bristol Airport months after leaving Swansea City.
While on gardening leave, has been assisting passengers with disabilities and limited mobility, despite still receiving his full Swansea salary.
The 44-year-old took the role to stay active and set a positive example for his children by making a meaningful impact.
Williams, who lives in South Wales, commutes by bus and finds the job aligns with his values of staying active and contributing, especially to set an example for his young sons.
His work went viral on social media, getting nearly two million views, though some criticised the coverage as “job-shaming,” which missed the point of his choice.
Williams sees the role as personal development, not a career shift, and aims to return to football management.
He values learning from colleagues and passengers about management and positivity, drawing parallels to his coaching philosophy.
However, after the media attention, he’s reconsidering his role to avoid distracting from the job’s focus on vulnerable passengers.
Former Swansea boss Luke Williams is currently working at Bristol airport helping disabled and limited-mobility passengers.
He doesn’t need the job financially, but does it because “he’d rather do something meaningful than sit at home.”
What an incredible mindset👏❤️ pic.twitter.com/r9mNp5ZWjK
— The 44 ⚽️ (@The_Forty_Four) June 21, 2025
“If you’re of working age & you’re capable, go & work & contribute. So that’s what I’m doing.”
Interview with Luke Williams (a top guy) on his shifts at Bristol Airport, the message he’s sending to his sons, & why the world of football doesn’t define him.https://t.co/7yq5wVDtpa
— Stuart James (@stujames75) June 29, 2025
“I was at the gate for an EasyJet flight, waiting to take a passenger onto the bus to take them out to the aircraft, and of course we make sure that those passengers have priority because it can be difficult getting them on and off,” Williams explained in an interview with The Athletic, on photo doing the rounds.
“Three really nice young guys were standing just behind me and one of them came forward and showed me his phone, and it was a picture of myself. He said: ‘Excuse me. Do you ever get told that you look like this guy?’.
“First of all, I don’t want to lie because it’s not the right thing to do. Secondly, I have a lanyard with my name on it, so I said: ‘Well, I do get told that I look like that guy quite a lot. Because that guy is me’.”
Luke explains how a colleague had been standing nearby and misheard the word ‘Swindon’ (one of Luke’s former clubs and the team that the passenger who showed him the picture supported), prompting her to later ask him if he was a former swimmer.
“I said: ‘No, I wasn’t a swimmer. I used to manage the football team that one of the guys supports’.”
“She said: ‘Oh. OK’.”
He would walk from his home in South Wales to just outside The Riverfront Theatre in Newport, and get a National Express bus to Bristol Airport at 4:45am, with his nine-hour shifts would start at 6am.
He read a book called ‘Why We Sleep’ by Matthew Walker, feeling guilty just sitting back “putting his feet up” doing it at home.
He does the job, not for financial requirement, nor does he have a desire to pursue a new career. Instead he keeps himself busy, to do something meaningful until Williams returns to doing what he loves, football management, at the earliest opportunity.
Credit – Wales Online
“You’ve got balls of steel,” a message that was sent to Luke Williams this week.
“I’ve come to learn that, from what people have said, if they tried to put themselves in my shoes, they would find it uncomfortable. But I don’t have that sensation,” he says.
“It feels very natural to find something to do and to go and work and make a positive impact. I’ve got two sons. They’re five and six, and in the blink of an eye, they’re going to be 15 and 16. The things that are happening around them, they’re absorbing. It’s very important for me to show them to always have a routine and an objective for the day. If you’re of working age and you’re capable, and you’re fortunate to have your health, go and work and contribute. So that’s what I’m doing.
“It’s not the type of job that is a career for me. I already have a career and I’ve got no intention of changing that. Why would I? I’ve already been successful in my own industry. I’ve reached a very high level and I’m going to continue, so I want to use this time for personal development, and I thought it’s better for me to do it in a way where I’m actually contributing rather than just observing.
“You can learn a lot from anything that you do. It doesn’t have to be in football. It doesn’t have to be in sport.
“Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and doing something completely different, meeting new people, listening to what they say and listening to their gripes.
“I’m working with a lot of people at the moment who have line managers and it’s really interesting to hear the things that they find difficult about how they’re being managed.
“I’m doing an honest day’s work. I’m not asking if I can just come in and sit there and observe — I’m making sure that I do every single task that all my colleagues are doing, but, at the same time, I’m getting to listen to how people prefer to be managed. What is it, in their opinion, that makes a good manager? Then I’m lucky enough to sit sometimes with people in management roles. What is it that they look for in a good employee?
“Spread energy, be smart — this is why I’m really fond of my new friend Sergio,” Williams adds. “Find a way to make the passenger experience positive, and then they give him positivity back. They love him. Then, if you go and talk to management: ‘Ahhh, Sergio’s the best’.
“If this guy was playing for my football team, somehow he finds himself in the team week in and week out because he has positivity. He looks at things as an opportunity, not as a threat. He’s there, he’s reliable.”
Luke reflects on his life, saying: “I couldn’t read or write particularly well when I left school. I got no A-Cs in any subjects at all. No qualifications whatsoever. I just found school really challenging.
“I’ve not done a single piece of homework, ever. When I was a scholar at Bristol Rovers, I went to St Brendan’s Sixth Form College in Brislington, in Bristol, to do a leisure and tourism course. At the end of the year, the teacher asked us to come up and look through the folders to see if there were any units missing. Every single unit was missing in my folder because I couldn’t understand anything that was being taught.”
Williams saw his playing career stopped by repeated knee surgery.
Growing up, a night out in Edmonton, north London saw Luke getting hit in the head and stabbed with a champagne flute when a teen. A few years after, he suffered a fractured skull and a broken hip in a car crash.
While coaching was something he always wanted to do and maintain, other jobs included loading lorries on an industrial estate and driving minibuses to pick up party-goers from nightclubs.
He’s been at Brighton, Swindon, Bristol City, MK Dons, Notts County and Swansea. When the latter parted ways with him, Williams got rid of his car as he said it was a luxury that he thought he could do without.
When asked when he plans to return to football management, he said: “As soon as possible.”
“I had a medical yesterday with the League Managers’ Association in London,” he said. “From Newport, you can get the train or you can get the bus, and one is significantly cheaper than the other, so you know which one I took.”
“It’s something that makes me sad that so many people in the industry feel extremely vulnerable and feel like their identity as a human being is that they’re a football manager or a football player or football coach.
“I’ve proven myself to be a competent football coach and a football manager, but I have an identity as a person and what this has done — which was not the aim in the slightest — has highlighted my personality. I would prefer my identity to be shaped and defined by the way I apply myself rather than the industry that I work in.”
It’s claimed that his shift at the airport was last week. He continues…
“Particularly the department I’m working in, there are many vulnerable passengers and the airport can be a chaotic place for them, and they need to be made the priority, and it should never be about me.”
“I don’t want to be sidetracked from the job or bring undue attention to the job, so I need to question what’s right for everybody: my colleagues and, most importantly, for the passengers.”
When told ‘that’s a shame to hear’, he replied: “It’s a shame in some ways. In other ways, it’s not a shame,” he says. “I’ve really enjoyed it and I feel like I contributed to the group of CCAs — the customer care assistants — that I’ve worked with. I’ve learned a lot.”
Williams was sent a message from one of his ex-players about working at the airport, which read: “What a f***ing legend you are, by the way. Seen that picture going around, that is class. No sitting on your backside. Just getting out and getting it done. No ego — like you always say.”
