The thing about footballers is that they make money through a profession that doesn’t last for long. At max, a footballer may be keep playing till his early-40s – and that, too, is doubtful for the outfield players since all the running that they do makes it quite impossible for them to feature in competitive matches.
So the general trend among footballers is that most of them stick with the game by becoming coaches, managers or pundits. Some others might just sit back and enjoy the serenity of doing nothing at all. But there’s always exceptions as some footballers take up jobs that are completely unconnected to the game, to the point that it is actually weird.
And this is a slideshow displaying just that as here are the 5 weirdest post-retirement jobs footballers have taken up.
#5 Faustino Asprilla
As a player, he was more than a decent one as he had the capability to score some spectacular goals while also displaying sizzling skills. However, controversies always surrounded him and one of them actually inspired him to open a line of condoms after retirement.
Apparently, according to Asprilla himself, he got the idea to make condoms when he accidently flashed out his, as Samuel L. Jackson would have said, dingus in a friendly match against Chile. After that, he became somewhat of a sex symbol back home in Colombia.
This perhaps incepted the seed of his post-retirement plan of manufacturing flavoured condoms. Indeed, the man was so professional about it that he conducted a research in Colombia whereby he concluded that women preferred strawberry or chocolate flavoured condoms – and he offered just that.
During the launch of his product, “Tino condoms”, in 2016, Asprilla joked that Colombia coach, Jose Pekerman, had already ordered some of his product: "He is going to put the condoms over his head when Colombia is playing a match in Barranquilla in the rain!"
#4 David Ginola
David Ginola was a fine player back in the day. His ability to beat defenders with the faintest of touch on the ball was a sight to behold. Indeed, he was so good that Johan Cruyff once labelled him as the “best player in the world.”
However, he was not just about the football as he had looks that would have given even Hollywood stars a run for their money. Actually, even now, the Frenchman can make girls swoon over him. Naturally, after he ended his career, he tried his hand at acting, but his heart wanted something else.
Growing up in a French family that drank wine with almost every meal, Ginola developed a taste for the drink and wanted to own his own vineyard. Indeed, when asked about what he was going to do after retiring, he said, “'my dream is to buy a domaine [vineyard] in France.”
Eventually, he did precisely that when he invested in a vineyard in Provence – his home ground – and actually went on to win a runners-up award in 2008 for his Coste Brulade rosé at the International Wine Challenge, the wine-tasting equivalent of the World Cup.
#3 Arjan De Zeeuw
When you think of Private Investigators, Sherlock Holmes is the first person that springs in your mind. The fictional character is known for his unorthodox behaviour and unparalleled ability to solve cases with his other-worldly deducing skills.
And it seems as though former Wigan defender, Arjan De Zeeuw, is a fan of Sherlock. Most footballers would opt for a career in coaching or become ambassadors for some club after retiring. For Zeeuw, however, that wasn’t enough.
"It was never my intention to put my feet up after playing - I like to use my brain a little bit," De Zeeuw told BBC Sport in 2013.
"I thought about a career in medicine but when I discovered it would take eight years before I could practice, I turned my attention elsewhere.”
Speaking to Daily Mail in another interview, he recalled how football is much different from his new line of work.
“This guy had been involved in lots of burglaries and I went round to his house with a partner, who luckily was very experienced. The target was very nervous and we had to calm him down, although I was as nervous as he was. You can play football in front of tens of thousands of people but this is completely different.”
As a player, he represented his country and now that he has retired, he is defending his motherland from the crooks.
#2 Klas Ingesson
He is not a household name like, say, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but this was a man who helped Sweden finish third in the 1994 World Cup, playing a major role in the team’s run. Someone who had such quality should have had played for the elite clubs.
Unfortunately, however, Klas mainly featured for clubs like PSV Eindhoven, Bair, Lecce and so on. Some English fans remember him for his time at Sheffield Wednesday, a club where he spent two years from 1994 to 1996.
He retired in 2001 and came back to football in 2013 as the manager of IF Elfsborg. In the space in between, he spent his time being a lumberjack. Apparently, it was his “dream” since childhood to be a lumberjack.
Also, the health benefits from cutting wood prompted him to keep doing it as it kept him in shape. The former Sweden international, however, couldn’t live long enough as he lost his battle to cancer on 29 October, 2014.
Rest in peace, Klas.
#1 Ray Wilson
The word ‘undertaker’ generally excites WWE fans because of Mark Calaway, better known as the Undertaker in the wrestling fraternity. While Calaway isn’t really an undertaker, neither did he ever have to do anything with the disposal of dead bodies, there was once an undertaker in the footballing world.
Ray Wilson was a member of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup after beating West Germany in the final. The former left-back was one of the unsung heroes of the squad that, to this day, is England’s only ever to win something in international football.
After retirement, the Huddersfield Town legend chose not to stick with the game and start an undertaker business in Huddersfield instead. In 1997, he retired from the business altogether and chose to live the life of a proper retiree.
The saddest part about this story is that Wilson was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2004 and doesn’t remember the glorious moment he lived as a World Cup winner. In an interview to the Mirror, his wife, Pat Wilson, said: “He asks me ‘Why can’t I remember?’ and I tell him he’s had a good time while he was there and that’s all that matters.”
But he is a happy man now as, according to Mrs. Wilson, "he’ll get up in the morning singing away; he loves Frank Sinatra.”
Who doesn’t?
