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Footballers are arguably among the best athletes on the planet. Speed, skill, agility, strength, endurance – the modern day footballer possesses a varied range of characteristics to succeed on the pitch.So it should not come as a surprise that some of them applied these traits to other sports before carving out a career in football. Be it cricket or boxing, there are a number of players who could have excelled in another arena.We take a look at eight such footballers who could have excelled in other sports.
#8 Joe Hart
Manchester City (currently on loan at Torino) and England goalkeeper Joe Hart was a cricketing prodigy. The 28-year-old played for Shrewsbury Cricket Club in the Birmingham & District Premier League between 2003 and 2005 and also spent two years in Worcestershire’s youth squads playing alongside former England international and current Surrey batsman Steven Davies.
According to his former coach at Worcestershire, Damian D’Oliveira, Hart was a precocious talent as a cricketer and could bowl quite fast as well.
“He had all the attributes – he was tall at 6’2”, could swing the ball back into the right-hander and could bowl around 85mph. He was one of the most highly-rated players in the country,” he said.
Worcestershire fast bowler Jack Shantry fondly remembers his days as Joe Hart’s teammate.
“We played junior cricket together for Shrewsbury Under-13s and Under-15s and we were the national champions and we also played football for the same football team,” he recalled.
“He was the school year above me and he was always far more talented than I was at both football and cricket. I'm sure if he had chosen cricket over football, he would have been a very successful cricketer.”
We think he is doing rather well as a footballer.
#7 Boudewijn Zenden
Bolo Zenden had a knack for martial arts while growing up in Maastricht, in the Netherlands. Being the son of former judoka Pierre Zenden, Bolo had a keen interest in Judo. He earned his black belt by the time he was 14 and is a three-time champion of his home province of Limburg.
Phil Bardsley, a former teammate at Sunderland, once recalled his judo moves. “He’s a judo black belt and used to do a few moves on me. I used to say, ‘show me’ – he put me in a move one day and I couldn’t get out. He nearly killed me!”
The Dutch midfielder applied the strict principles of discipline and obedience associated with martial arts to football which saw him featured for clubs like Barcelona, Chelsea and Liverpool.
Zenden also represented the Dutch national team at the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France and helped the Netherlands reach the semi-finals of both the UEFA European Championships in 2000 and 2004.
#6 Phil Neville
Former Manchester United and Everton player Phil Neville was an exemplary cricketer and the captain of the England U-15’s. An opening left-handed batsman, Neville became the youngest player ever to represent the Lancashire second XI, a team which also boasted a certain Andrew Flintoff.
Former Somerset bowler Steve Kirby even believed that Neville was better than Flintoff.
“Phil [Neville] was captain of the England under-15 side at football and cricket. He was brilliant. I know it's a big statement, but he was better than Flintoff at the time,” he said.
Neville then went on to represent the Lancashire U-19 side along with Flintoff. An undeniable prodigy without a shadow of a doubt, Neville’s other talent as a footballer saw him live a glittering trophy-laden career.
His brother and former United captain Gary Neville believes that had it not been for his love for football, Phil would have captained the England senior team. Well, we think it all turned out for the best, Gary.
#5 Gary Lineker
Gary Lineker is one of England’s greatest ever players. The current Match of The Day host is third on the England’s all-time goalscorers list and has played for clubs such as Barcelona, Everton, Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur. Unbeknownst to the fans, Lineker was a cricketing talent while growing up.
Discussing his adolescent years, Lineker said in the Independent: “I was captain of the Leicestershire Schools cricket team from 11 to 16 and thought at the time I would probably have more chance afterwards in cricket than football.”
A right-handed batsman who also bowled medium pace with the ball, Lineker played three games for Sir JP Getty’s XI at Wormsley Cricket Ground in Buckinghamshire, England. The prolific striker also represented Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against The Forty Club at Beckenham.
As a footballer, Lineker became the top scorer of the English first division on three separate occasions and won the Golden Boot award at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. We are glad that you stuck with football, Gary.
#4 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic on whom phony internet memes are based is not only one of the best footballers on the planet but also a black-belt in Taekwondo. The Swede received his black belt when he was 17 years old and continued to practice the sport when he moved from Ajax to Italy to play for Juventus, and later, Inter Milan.
Ibrahimovic also received an honorary black belt from the Italian national taekwondo team in 2010.
“Had he had the same focus on taekwondo he has had on football, and able to invest in the same way, it is clear that he could have been just fine,” said Leif Almö, president of the sports centre where Zlatan practiced taekwondo in his youth.
Ibrahimovic’s nomadic football career has seen him represent several clubs; including Spanish heavyweights FC Barcelona and three of the biggest Italian clubs in Juventus & Milan giants Inter and AC Milan where he won a myriad of accolades before moving to PSG and Manchester United.
#3 Roy Keane
Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane’s inordinately fiery disposition on the pitch could be traced back to his frequent bouts as an amateur boxer in his hometown of Mayfield in Cork, Ireland.
He took up boxing at the age of ten or eleven and was moderately good at knocking people out cold until the day he was forced to quit the sport and focus on his rather better footballing abilities. A lack of height was cited as the reason why he quit boxing.
“Boxing is the best sport in the world,” he said in an interview with The Guardian. “It's man against man. You are on your own. There's only one person going to come out of that ring a winner.”
Evidently, the love for boxing has not left the Irishman.
Keane’s exemplary captaincy was pivotal in United winning an unprecedented treble in the 1998/99 season. However, his tenures as manager at both Ipswich and Sunderland were deemed as major failures.
#2 Gareth Bale
Real Madrid’s Welsh forward Gareth Bale is one of the most gifted athletes to have graced a football pitch. Growing up in Whitchurch, Cardiff, Bale attended the Eglwys Newydd Primary School where he excelled in a number of sports including rugby, hockey and athletics.
He was also classmates with former Welsh rugby captain Sam Warburton at Eglwys. The Madrid winger was a remarkable sprinter as a teenager and once clocked an impressive 4:59 and 2:24.8 for 1500m and 800m respectively.
As a 14-year-old, he completed the 100 metres sprint in just 11.4 seconds. He even did cross-country running as a youngster. His sprinting ability has been accentuated on the football pitch and brought him global recognition when he tore apart Inter Milan’s defence for Tottenham in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League.
A career in athletics would not have been that bad, but it is safe to claim that it would not have been as good as his career in football considering he became the most expensive player at the time when he moved to the Bernabeu in 2013.
#1 Wayne Rooney
Manchester United and England captain Wayne Rooney was an avid boxer during his adolescent years. In fact, Rooney had joined professional boxing training for three or four years while growing up. He accredits his heroics on the football pitch to the rigorous amounts of training he did as a boxer in his youth.
“All through my life – from the ages of six, seven and eight – when big fights were on television, I used to stay up with my dad to watch them,” he had said in an interview.
“I've always loved watching boxing and I went boxing training for about three or four years when I was younger. It's a sport I've always been involved in,” he added.
His obvious brilliance with a football at his feet was for all to see but he tried to accommodate boxing along with his football training with Everton up until he was 15. That is when the Merseyside club told him to concentrate on one sport and he opted for football.
We all believe that was a very wise decision, Wazza. Although the fight with Phil Bardsley at home where you were knocked out probably wasn’t.
