5 celebrities in other fields who could have become footballers

#4 Conor McGregor

'The Notorious' Conor McGregor has cemented his legacy as arguably the greatest performer in the history of MMA, drawing megabucks to any of his UFC fights and holding numerous championships during his stay there. However, he could very well have gone down a different career path.

Growing up in Ireland, McGregor shared the same dream with young boys his age, i.e getting to become a professional footballer, and he played amateur Sunday league football at different points, even referring to himself as a 'Goal Machine' (even though we might take that with a pinch of salt given his propensity for self aggrandisement).

We do know that he represented a couple of Irish clubs at amateur level, with former coach Robbie Beakhurst stating in an interview with Junior Soccer Portal “He played for me with a club called Slievenamon United when we played in the UCFL. He was a striker and was our top scorer every year.

“I took over Yellowstone Celtic and took him with me and again he was scoring for fun on a weekly basis. “He used to just say to the rest of team ‘just give me the ball and I’ll do the rest’ – he was a smashing player but we had a decent team.

“As he got more involved in the MMA he couldn’t make matches and we allowed him to skip training.”

Long-time friend and former teammate Alan Power who currently plays for Scottish Premier League side Kilmanock where he mimics McGregor's iconic 'Billy Strut' whenever he scores also echoed Beakhurst's statements saying ''Conor and I used to knock around in the same circle of friends back home when we were growing up. He played Sunday League football where I did, actually he wasn’t a bad footballer, but he chose a different path.”

Ultimately, he went on to cement his legacy in a different 'sport', although it would have been enthralling to watch his controversial personality on a football field.