Living the high life as a home-grown Manchester United star, footballer Brandon Williams posted pictures on social media showing him aboard a private jet, on exotic holidays and with expensive cars.
But the hip-hop music fan, nicknamed ‘B Dubz’ by friends, could soon swap privilege for a prison cell when he is sentenced for crashing his car at 99mph – having been filmed moments earlier ‘with a balloon in his mouth’ while out driving with a young female.
It’s a heavy fall from grace for a player once hailed for his fearless performances on the pitch and being ‘as brave as a lion’.
Prosecutors said it was ‘fortunate’ nobody was seriously injured or killed in the crash on the A34 in Cheshire in August 2023.
At a hearing before Chester Crown Court on March 14, Williams, now 24, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, which carries a maximum punishment of two years in jail.
His sentencing on May 9 will come almost a year since he was released by Manchester United when his four-year deal worth £65,000 a week ran out, leaving the left back without a club.
Brandon Williams faces up to two years in prison after pleading guilty for dangerous driving
The former Manchester United defender reached speeds of 99mph – just months after being filmed with a ‘balloon in his mouth’ while out driving with a young female
Williams played 51 times for Man United but was released upon his contract expiry in summer
Last autumn, Williams was reportedly with a new agent, Rob Segal, who has represented the footballer’s former teammate Marcus Rashford, and more recent social media posts show him now back in the gym.
The combative footballer, also known as Bran, is understood to have started boxing training to further boost his fitness, with a view to finding a new club.
But his plans may have to be revised if he receives anything close to the maximum sentence.
To make matters worse, Williams already has a chequered driving history, amassing 30 penalty points.
He received driving bans of six months in October 2023 and 12 months in May 2024.
In the case from last May, he twice failed to declare who was driving and was awarded 12 points as well as a £1,000 fine.
Williams himself hinted at what went wrong for him in a recent YouTube interview, when he talked of the difficulties of coming from Manchester’s tough Harpurhey estate to represent the city’s most successful club.
Williams’ family is so grounded that his mother Lisa Wood still runs a cafe, Snack Attack, on Harpurhey market – where her son occasionally used to help her in his spare time.
His Instagram grid is filled with photos of him on exotic holidays and posing with fancy cars
However, his family is so grounded that his mother Lisa still runs a cafe, Snack Attack
Williams poses with Marcus Rashford after United win the Carabao Cup in February 2023
She still proudly displays images of Williams including newspaper cuttings about his footballing success.
While handing lunchtime butties to fellow traders, Ms Wood, 54, was tight-lipped other than to say she ‘hopes’ her son can reignite his footballing career. ‘I can’t say anything else’, she added.
Locals in Harpurhey were broadly sympathetic with Williams but said he had done something ‘daft’ which ‘put other people in danger’.
One local at the market, who once played for non-league side FC United of Manchester but declined to be named, said: ‘I’ve known Brandon since he was a kid. He was a good little player. He used to join a group of us for a kick-around.
‘It’s a shame how he’s let himself down. He needs to get back into training and sort his fitness out – he’s shown he can make it and is still young enough.’
One neighbour living close to the family home said: ‘I see him quite often with his mum. He’s a nice lad and really down to earth.
‘His gran lives a few doors down, so they are a really close-knit family.
‘Everyone knows him as the lad who played for United. I hope he gets back to playing soon.’
Williams has admitted that he found fame ‘hard’ because of how often he was approached
He has started boxing training to stay fit and potentially impress a new club, having also played for Norwich and Ipswich on loan
Williams took to social media to pen an emotional message after leaving United in the summer
In the YouTube interview, for the More Than A Match channel hosted by Williams’ former United youth team colleague D’Mari Mellor and another former footballer, Ryan Hopper, Williams described how his life ‘went from 0-100 real quick and that’s what people will never understand’.
Referring to his background as an ‘estate kid’, he said: ‘I’m from that area, it’s red, red, red, like. I’ve done stuff with my mum’s cafe.’
Williams’ playing career took off soon after turning 19, in September 2019, when he was handed his debut in an EFL Cup match against Rochdale.
The following month, he was hailed as ‘man of the match’ in a Europa League away victory against Partisan Belgrade by then-United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who eulogised about his young prospect, saying: ‘He’s been fantastic the few games he’s played. The boy has no fear, he is as brave as a lion and he got us the win.’
Former Manchester United right back and Class of ’92 member Gary Neville said at the time that Williams would ‘eat his opponent’s nose to win’.
And Ed Woodward, United’s then chief executive, was so impressed he told people Williams had replaced England international Luke Shaw as the club’s top left back.
But Williams, who had been with Manchester United from the age of seven, quickly discovered a down side.
He said: ‘It was difficult. You had family members you didn’t know was (sic) your family, friends you didn’t know was your mates.’
Locals in Harpurhey insist Williams is a ‘nice lad’ and he used to help out in his mother’s cafe
He is believed to have earned around £65,000 per week, or £3.4million every single year
Normal activities such as going to the shops or for family meals soon became problematic.
He recalled: ‘I am and always will still act who I am. I like to walk round ASDA, do my shopping, I like to think of it as a little meditation, listening to the radio and getting all the bargains.
‘I had someone come up to me and say, what are you doing in here? I thought, what do you mean, why can’t I be in here?
‘The limelight’s on you and the things I found hard was when I was out with my family and people are coming up to me and asking for photos.
‘I’m about to eat my steak and someone’s come up for a picture. When I’m with my family, I’m with my family. That’s what I lost.’
Williams added that as soon as he became successful ‘everyone just wanted, wanted, wanted’, pressuring him and his family for match tickets or Manchester United shirts.
He went on: ‘My dad (Paul Williams) went on Facebook and said ‘no shirts, no tickets, it’s stopping now’.’
Williams even described having to be sneaked into venues by the ‘back door’ to avoid fans.
Normal activities such as shopping and eating out became complicated due to his status
Prosecutors said it was ‘fortunate’ that nobody died after he was caught driving at 99mph
But he added: ‘I’d rather play for United and have that than not play for United.’
Williams’ debut season in 2019-20 – the end of which was delayed due to the Pandemic – ultimately proved to be his most successful at United, with him making 36 first team appearances overall.
In his YouTube interview, Williams hints he struggled to cope with the pressures off-field.
Advising other young players coming through, he said: ‘I would get help off someone in your family or speak to someone who’s had experience of it… just lay low and concentrate on what you need to do. Don’t let it change who you are and just keep focused on what you need to do – and do something else apart from just football.
‘Go and do a business, try and learn a language or go and play another sport, just something different that will keep you occupied and out of all the crap.’
By early 2020, Williams – a former England under-20 – was even being spoken of as being in line for a call-up for Gareth Southgate’s England senior squad.
But he believes his United career began to fall apart during lockdown when he was living back with his mother in her terraced home in Harpurhey.
He said: ‘We were on Zoom doing planks and press-ups. Everyone’s all in their mansions, I’m in my bedroom at my mum’s still.
It was thought that Williams had the potential to one day break into England’s senior side
He spent last season on loan at Ipswich in the Championship as they got promoted
‘There was nothing I could really use (for exercises), I was so limited.’
A disappointing season followed in 2020-21 with Williams beset by injury and making only a handful of appearances.
In the summer of 2021, he went on loan to Norwich for a season – partly hinting at further off-field personal issues in Manchester. The loan went well, with Williams picking up a string of Man of the Match awards.
‘It was far away from Manchester… things were just hectic up there’, Williams said.
A return to United followed but Williams continued to struggle and took another loan move to then newly-promoted Championship side Ipswich, managed by ex-United coach Kieran McKenna, in the summer of 2023.
Again, he alluded to personal problems, saying: ‘At that point, I was in a bad situation, stuff was going on.’
His fateful crash happened days before starting the loan spell at Portman Road, crashing on the A34 near Handforth, Cheshire, while driving in an erratic manner.
Williams needed hospital treatment before he was arrested and breathalysed, but tests for drugs and alcohol were negative.
Williams is a big hip-hop fan and has acquired the nickname ‘B Dubz’ due to his passion
Andrew Madden, senior Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor said Williams’ driving ‘clearly fell far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver’.
He said: ‘Witnesses said Williams kept speeding up and then braking sharply. It was clear he wasn’t in control of the vehicle.
‘The driving was erratic and the speed was grossly excessive. Eventually, Williams lost control completely and crashed.’
Mr Madden added it was ‘fortunate no one was seriously injured or killed’.
And even while on bail after the crash, when Williams attempted to focus back on his football, it was clear there were ongoing personal issues.
By January, Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna allowed him two weeks to return to Manchester, telling him: ‘Sort out what you need to sort out’.
Williams, who had a long-term relationship with influencer Shanice Easty, 22, recalled: ‘Things were starting to go crazy off the pitch, with friends and stuff like that.’
He ended up leaving Ipswich before the end of the season to train alone, at United’s reserve training ground, The Cliff, in Salford, with former player and coach Mark Dempsey, and his contract was not renewed.
The 24-year-old’s defence is expected to argue for a community sentence
Sources suggest Williams’ guilty plea – which came as a surprise to the prosecution – may be part of a plan to rehabilitate the footballer in time to resurrect his career next season.
His defence is expected to argue for a community sentence, pointing out how the bulk of his penalty points were accrued for other motoring matters postdating the crash – so cannot be considered during sentencing – and point to his otherwise clean record.
Williams is not the first graduate of the Red Devils’ academy whose off-field antics have come under scrutiny.
His ex-teammate and friend Mason Greenwood, 23, is rebuilding his career in Marseille, France, after he was arrested in January 2022 over allegations of attempted rape and domestic abuse, for which he was briefly held in prison on remand, before the charges were dropped.
Greenwood had previously made 129 appearances for United, scoring 35 goals for the first team, and won a single cap for the England senior side in 2020.
Striker Marcus Rashford, 27, now on loan at Aston Villa and back in the England squad, came under scrutiny for partying and gambling, including a 12-hour midweek tequila bender in Belfast in January 2024, after which he rang in sick for training.
In an article for The Times two months later, his mother Melanie Maynard defended her son, pointing out that he had been affected by two bereavements.
But Ms Maynard, whose son is from another tough area of Manchester, Wythenshawe, also referenced the same difficulties with hangers-on as mentioned by Williams.
His fateful crash happened days before he joined Ipswich on loan and followed a chequered driving history
She wrote: ‘You always need to be wary of people’s intentions around you — sometimes people around you can be wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing.’
Years earlier, Ravel Morrison, now 32 and playing in the Middle East, was described by legendary United boss Sir Alex Ferguson as the ‘best young player he had ever seen’. But he was dogged with personal problems and failed to succeed at United.
Old Trafford insiders say the club provided ‘extraordinary levels of support’ for Williams, and while there has been disappointment at his ‘reckless’ behaviour, there remains widespread goodwill and desire to see him rebuild his career.
A United source stressed it goes to great lengths to provide support to help academy players adjust to the demands which accompany success. The club also runs a series of courses for players on personal development as required by the Premier League.
A Manchester United spokesman declined to offer further comment.
