Footballers with hobbies you might not know about

Footballers are just like us, and there's more to a person than just one thing, isn’t it? There are many footballers who have taken up different professions after retiring from the game, but we are not talking about that. In this slideshow, we are strictly talking about hobbies, and not a means to make money off. Here are ten footballers and their hobbies that you might not know about:

#1 Andrei Arshavin: Fashion Designer

Russia’s pride Andrey Sergeyevich Arshavin, or simply known as Andrei Arshavin has definitely proved his mettle as a professional footballer to the world, but did you know that the former Arsenal superstar holds a degree in fashion designing?

Arshavin is known to be a designer of women’s clothes and even has his own clothing line with products ranging from formal dresses to sportswear. Enrolled into the St. Petersburg State University of Technology and Design at the age of 17, Arshavin was there to study chemical technology.

However, he later switched courses to take up sewing at the university because “there were lots of girls among the students”. And, the best part about it is that he’s not shy to admit it.

“When I turned 17, I had to choose which university to attend,” he said in an interview. “My friends and I decided to try for the technology and design institute because there were lots of girls among the students and you didn’t have to study too hard, or so we thought.

"I enrolled in the chemical technology department. But when I began training with Zenit I had to miss a lot of classes. I transferred to the clothes design department. I have designed several garments myself.”

#2 David Beckham: Fencing with Will Smith and Tom Cruise

David Beckham’s move to the United States brought about many changes into the former England international, and we are not talking about his football here. For example, he took up fencing and it was two of Hollywood’s most successful actors – Tom Cruise and Will Smith – who had introduced the old-school sport to the ex-Manchester United star.

Beckham would quite often hang around Cruise’s house because he had a room in his house specially built for training. “We don't get enough time for hanging out, just us three guys, so this is his way of getting together and bonding,” Will Smith had said at the time. “David and I go to his home and just do fencing. It's a lot of fun.”

“We wanted an activity that was strenuous, but we're getting older – we have to think about slowing down,” Smith said while making a funny remark. “We've got to watch our joints.”

#3 Asamoah Gyan: Ghanas Pitbull

When Asamoah Gyan is not busy playing football, the best guess would be that he is in a music studio, recording music and featuring in pop videos. In the summer of 2010, he recorded his first single under the alias ‘Baby Jet’ with ace Ghanaian musician Theophilus Tagoe a.k.a. Castro the Destroyer titled African Girls.

Interestingly, the song went on to even win an award at the Ghana Music awards in 2011.

It wasn’t long until Gyan started receiving requests to perform at parties and he was invited to his former boss at Sunderland, Steve Bruce’s wife’s birthday party at a club in England to perform.

His other works as a musician include Do Da Dance, Oda Pa and Accelerator Down.

#4 Michael Owen: A big-time horse-lover

Michael Owen is known to be a big time horse-lover and owns quite a few horse stables himself. And this is more pleasure than business.

After setting up the Manor House Stables in 2007 with trainer Tom Dascombe and businessman Andrew Black, the former Liverpool and Manchester United star’s 170-acre stable in Cheshire, England now houses over 100 horses with investments from 250 investors.

“It's a business that takes a lot of money to run,” he told CNN. “You don't want to continue to not be in profit or at least break even, so the business is in a healthy position now. I don't want to have to plow money into it every year, which is why it's important that it's run correctly.”

“Aside from that, it's purely a hobby and if it gives me a lot of enjoyment then that's exactly what it was built to be.”

#5 Cristiano Ronaldo: Bingo!

You would think for someone as flamboyant as Cristiano Ronaldo, he would have a rather eccentric hobby that would see him bungee jumping from the world’s tallest building, or bull fighting in Spain, but instead, the multiple-time Ballon d’Or winner is a huge fan of the game Bingo. Now, don’t get me wrong. Bingo is a famous game, and is probably attractive to a certain set of people.

Apparently, the Real Madrid star was given a DVD version of the game as a present for Christmas while he was at Manchester United, and he hasn’t stopped playing it since.

“It can be very exciting because you can be there waiting for a long time for just the one number to make the game complete,” he told a Portuguese paper. “Then you see one of your friends you are playing against get his lucky number before you.”

Bingo is said to have been very crucial for Ronaldo while he was still learning English. And, perhaps, taking a safer hobby is actually pretty wise for someone like Ronaldo who aims to play every single match for his team.

#6 Ryan Giggs: The Yoga guru

Manchester United’s assistant manager Ryan Giggs is known to be an advocate of yoga, and why wouldn’t he be? Playing large till the age of 40, yoga was his secret. The Welshman even released a personal training DVD titled Giggs Fitness with the help of his yoga instructor Sarah Ramsden

“There is a very good reason as to why I have managed to maintain my level of fitness and continue playing at premiership level for so long,” Giggs explained when asked about yoga’s influence in his career.

“People are always coming up and saying ‘How are you still playing at 37? How are you still playing for United?’ and I say that one of the main reasons is the yoga, keeping me as strong and flexible as possible.”

#7 Rio Ferdinand: Entertainment off the pitch

Rio Ferdinand has always been known to be a player who likes to fool around and have - both on and off the pitch. Apart from being a Champions League winning defender, Ferdinand has the eye and the ear for the entertainment business.

Back in 2005, he had created a record label with an old friend called White Chalk Music, with him even featuring in one of the songs by Nia Jai who was the first signing to Ferdinand's label.

He is often seen taking interviews of celebrities, football or not, and that is not just it. His digital magazine called “#5” was one of the world's first multi-platform digital lifestyle magazine. He was also an executive producer with his English teammate Ashley Cole for Alex de Rakoff's film Dead Man Running that featured 50 Cent as one of the actors.

And, who could forget his own version of hit American show Punk’d called Merk'd that featured him playing pranks on famous English footballers including the likes Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney and David Beckham.

#8 Andrea Pirlo: A wine connoisseur

Did you know Pirlo is not just the surname of Italian playmaker Andrea Pirlo, but also a traditional white wine in Italy? This explains a lot about his passion for wines.

“My grandmother had a vineyard here and, as a child, I came with my relatives to help with the grape harvest,” Pirlo revealed. “I’ve always drunk wine, ever since I was little and my mother mixed a little of it with water for me. I like to read about wine, to understand it, to try wines from other regions, other labels.”

“Up until now we haven’t promoted the wine too much,” he continued. “We recently opened sales online, so little by little people are starting to know about it. Of course, some fans are curious to try it.

"But slowly we’ll try to promote it more. We have also been renovating the farmhouse that forms part of the land here with a view to creating a restaurant and rooms for people to stay, somewhere they can come and relax in the midst of nature and also drink the wine.”

Talk about class!

#9 Gerard Pique: A Poker Star

Following the early group stage elimination of Spain from the 2014 FIFA World Cup, defender Gerard Pique was seen taking part in the annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Pique, who was up 140,000 in tournament chips at the tournament, was however knocked out by American player Michael Aron at the end of the second day in the tournament.

Pique is an avid poker player, and has made a career earning of about $123,173, and holds the 134th spot in the Spanish all-time Money list.

#10 Theo Walcott: Childrens book author

Apart from running down the flanks with blistering pace, Arsenal winger Theo Walcott is known to be an avid book lover, and has even published four books titled, T.J. and the Hat-Trick, T.J. and the Penalty, T.J. and the Winning Goal and T.J. and the Cup Run – all of them based on the adventures of a fictional character called TJ.

His auto-biography titled Theo: Growing Up Fast was released in August 2011, where he candidly speaks about his meteoric rise to fame in his own words.