EXCLUSIVE: Former Tottenham Hotspur hard man Paul Miller swapped football for finance and now works for Everton shirt sponsors CMC Markets
Jack Grealish in action during the match between Everton and Manchester United at Hill Dickinson Stadium on September 6, 2026
Jack Grealish in action during the match between Everton and Manchester United at Hill Dickinson Stadium on September 6, 2026
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Former Tottenham Hotspur hard man Paul Miller used to go toe-to-toe with Everton’s strikers, kicking lumps out of each other. However, after reinventing himself in the high-finance world of the City of London after hanging up his boots, he now finds himself working for the Blues’ new shirt sponsors, CMC Markets.
Playing over 280 matches for Spurs in all competitions during a decade at the club between 1977-87, Miller helped them to lift back-to-back FA Cups in 1981 and 1982 plus the UEFA Cup in 1984 when he netted against Anderlecht in Brussels in the first match of the double-legged final that his side won on penalties. He might have won a League Championship too the following season but after pushing Everton close until the penultimate month, Spurs were ultimately blown away by Howard Kendall’s side who ended up romping to the title by a then-record 13-point margin.
Miller told the ECHO: “On the opening day of the 1984/85 season, we went up to Everton and beat them 4-1. We totally outplayed them but fast forward to the April and we met them in a midweek match at White Hart Lane.
“We were first and second in the table at the time, with Everton top, so it was a massive game.
“Neville Southall had the night of his life, he made one of the greatest saves I’ve ever seen to keep out Mark Falco’s header. They hung on to beat us 2-1 but they had Graeme Sharp and Andy Gray up front against myself and Graham Roberts – that was World War Three.
“It was a great Everton team, all the way through the midfield and the back four. There was no weakness there.
“I loved Howard Kendall, he was a wonderful man, a proper man. Howard had been one of Everton’s best ever players before becoming their most successful manager, he was terrific, leading them to a couple of League Championships, an FA Cup and a European Cup-Winners’ Cup at a time when English teams ruled Europe.
“I used to love going to Goodison, I played there a lot of times, and it was a terrific atmosphere. I thought it was very similar to White Hart Lane.”
Paul Miller's Tottenham shirt is covered in blood during a north London derby against Arsenal at Highbury on New Year's Day 1985
Paul Miller's Tottenham shirt is covered in blood during a north London derby against Arsenal at Highbury on New Year's Day 1985(Image: Mark Leech/Offside via Getty Images)
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When Everton head down to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday evening, they’ll be displaying the CMC Markets logo on their shirts following a sponsorship deal confirmed on June 30. That announcement was the prompt for footballer turned financier Miller to get on board with the firm having taken the bold step to retrain once his playing days were over.
At 66, Miller explains how the combination of having two young children and a rewarding position in the office helps him to keep sharp as he’s at his desk working at 7:30 each morning.
As he speaks to this correspondent, there’s no denying the proper London accent that the East Ender retains but it was a long-standing acquaintance with another working class lad made good from the capital that was the key to his summer switch.
Miller said: “After I retired from football, I worked in the City in the insurance industry and became a Lloyd’s broker, working alongside Matthew Harding, the part owner of Chelsea who we sadly lost in the helicopter crash, he was a great man, a legend. Then I went into private banking and worked for three different banks.
“I re-educated myself. I’d left school at 15 without any qualifications but by the time I’d finished playing at 32, I didn’t want to stay in the game any longer doing coaching and I felt I had a lot more to offer.
“I knew a lot of people in the City and had gone to school with guys who had become City brokers. I was born just half a mile away at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel and my mum cleaned offices and emptied the bins in the City when I was a child.
“I’d grown up knowing about the City of London, I love it, it’s a very special place. It’s very British, people only come to the City to work, I’m in every day wearing a shirt and tie, dealing with people, I’m good at that, and while you’ve got the Monument and St Paul’s Cathedral, other than that, it’s not really a tourist area.
“The founder of CMC Markets, who owns the company, is Baron Peter Cruddas. He’s a boy from Hackney and there aren’t many of those who become barons and sit in the House of Lords.
“He’s a billionaire but he’s a self-made man who I’ve known for many years. He’s only got one problem, he’s a bloody Gooner...
“We come from a similar area, and I’ve known him for 26 years since we met at Buckingham Palace at a Save the Children event with Princess Anne. Over the summer, I saw that CMC Markets had struck a sponsorship deal with Everton.
Former footballer Paul Miller now works for Everton's shirt sponsors CMC Markets
Former footballer Paul Miller now works for Everton's shirt sponsors CMC Markets
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“I gave Peter a call on the back of that and explained that I’d been doing bits and pieces in consultancy but was looking for a full-time role and asked whether I could come and help in anyway.
“He invited me to come and see him the following Wednesday, and we caught up in the office. I received a written offer the next day and was in within a month, so here I am.
“It’s a top company in the FTSE 250 with 600 staff and the company made £750million last year, they look after us all and we’re well treated. That’s just the London branch, we’re also in Europe, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand as well.
“I’ve had a City career since 1992 and had to take all the exams. I think it keeps you young when you’re working.
“I know a lot of extremely wealthy people who have retired in their early 60s, have gone around the world for a year with their spouse, then come back and think: ‘What do I do now?’”
While Miller acknowledges that Premier League footballers in the 2020s are blessed with far greater riches than he earned in the late 1970s and 1980s, he believes it is still prudent for them to plan for a life – and a career – after their playing days are over.
He said: “Although most footballers still come from working class backgrounds, I think it’s quite different now. If you play for just five years in the Premier League, you should have enough money to set yourself up nicely for when you pack in.
“However, look at the number of former players who have lost money, you read about it every month in the papers. You think: ‘He must have earned a fortune, how has he gone bankrupt?’
“But it happens because people rip them off, they trust the wrong types, or they make the wrong investments.
“Look at the lists now of recently retired footballers, queuing up to become managers and coaches, it’s not a big market. There’s probably only 500 of them across the country who can get employment in the Football League and some of them don’t get paid very well in the lower divisions.
“You’ve got to try and think of something else to do. The PFA will put on courses to help you to try and get some education or qualifications because life doesn’t stop after you play football, it’s just starting and you’re still a young man.
“I started playing football at seven years old and had to finish when I was 32 through an injury. Not many carry on too long after that age and you’ve got to find a new purpose.”
Paul Miller flanked by fellow Tottenham Hotspur legends Pat Jennings and Ossie Ardiles
Paul Miller flanked by fellow Tottenham Hotspur legends Pat Jennings and Ossie Ardiles
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Ahead of their trip to Spurs, Everton drew 2-2 at home to Manchester United last Sunday and Miller reckons the dramatic match, which saw the Blues secure a share of the spoils through debutant Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ last-gasp equaliser will have been a great advertisement for the CMC Markets brand.
He said: “I’m delighted to see Everton doing what they’re doing, and I’ve got a lot of time for David Moyes. I saw the game on Sunday and because it was against Manchester United, we knew that footage went around the world.
“Hundreds of millions of people will have seen the CMC Markets logo and many would have wondered who we are and doing internet searches to see who we are. It was great exposure for us, especially when Jack Grealish came on as a substitute, the camera must have been focused on him for a full minute, I loved it.
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“I’m at Tottenham every home game and couldn’t have a better place to work in a business environment. At Spurs we have eight-and-a-half thousand corporates and their take on a matchday is the highest in the world, nobody else pays what Spurs get on a matchday, they signed 11 new players this summer and just need to get it right on the pitch.
“I know David Moyes quite well and I’m friends with Graeme Sharp and Peter Reid. Reidy and I have both known the new Prime Minister for a long time who of course is a staunch Evertonian.
“I’m coming up next week to watch the Liverpool v Spurs game at Anfield on Tuesday and then I’ve got my first trip to Hill Dickinson Stadium on Wednesday for Everton against Wolves.
“From my observations I’ve also found that most people in Liverpool support Everton. If you go to Euston station on a Saturday morning the trains heading north are packed with supporters leaving London to go and watch Liverpool or Manchester United, the fans of those two clubs come from all over the world.
“I think Everton is a great club and they’re not dissimilar to Tottenham in terms of having brilliant teams, winning trophies and playing good football over different eras. Now with them both having new stadiums, even more so.”