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As far as sport is concerned, the old adage of ‘practice makes perfect’ always applies. In order to become good at any aspect of a sport requires hours of practice and dedication on behalf of the sportsmen. It makes one wonder how much dedication one would need if you wanted to be good in two different sports!
Let’s take a look at some footballers who played other sports as well:
1) Gabriel Batistuta – The Argentinian striker has a few goal-scoring records to his name and is still the highest goal-scorer for his country with 56 goals in 78 appearances. Diego Maradona described Batistuta as the best pure striker he had ever seen and he is considered a legend in Fiorentina, where he spent the best years of his career. After retiring from football, the man who was named in FIFA’s list of ’125 Greatest Players of All Time’ turned to polo and played for La Gloria, a team he owned, in the year 2009, another sport in which he managed to score quite well.
Clive Allen
2) Clive Allen – The English striker and son of former Spurs forward Les Allen has represented more London clubs than anyone in history. He also scored a massive 202 goals in 418 appearances in a career that spanned nearly 17 years. As it turns out, he was also a half-decent American football player as well although he only played the sport for one season. He represented the London Monarchs in the now-defunct NFL Europe for one season, scoring every kick he ever made.
Curtis Woodhouse
3) Curtis Woodhouse – The former Sheffield United and Birmingham City midfielder retired from the game at the young age of 27 and turned to boxing, which he admitted had always been his “first love”. He even said that he had been involved in over 100 street fights. He made his boxing debut against Dean Marcantonio in 2006 and defeated him on points, despite having no experience in the sport. He is currently the International Masters welter-weight champion and has won fifteen matches in his career (eleven of which were knock-outs) and lost only four.
Manfred Burgsmuller
4) Manfred Burgsmuller – Burgsmuller was a versatile footballer; he was a striker who even operated as a midfielder (he playe solely in midfield for Borussia Dortmund) . He made 607 appearances in his career, scoring 303 goals. He represented top clubs like Borussia Dortmund and Werder Bremen and was also capped 3 times for West Germany. After he retired, he turned to American football, playing as a kicker for NFL Europe team Rhein Fire. At 52, he was the oldest ever American football player.
5) Chuni Goswami – The striker is considered one of the best footballer players to come out of India. He even captained the country on several occasions and played for Mohun Bagan, one of India’s leading football clubs. There were even rumours going about that English club Tottenham Hotspur wanted to sign him. Aside from being an excellent footballer, he also played cricket; he was an all-rounder. He represented Bengal in the Ranji Trophy and led them to a final in the same tournament.
