Bizarre second careers of footballers
On January 2, 2024, he was sacked by Birmingham City. He had resigned as Derby County manager in 2022 after relegation to League One, and parted ways with DC United in 2023 after they failed to qualify for the playoffs.
The out-of-work Liverpool-born Manchester United star forward might be considering stepping into the boxing ring now. Rooney is not alone in ambiguity over a second career. A 2021 FIFPRO survey had concluded that two out of three professional footballers are not sure what they will do when they stop playing.
If the former Red Devil does go ahead with the rumoured Misfits Boxing fight against ‘The Problem Child’ Jake Paul, believe the pundits to go into overdrive mode. For now, one can do with: ‘It could be bigger than even the Super Bowl or Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor’.
While Rooney and the media traverse through ‘will he, won’t he?’, here’s rounding up the others who surprised with their second careers.
OF SPIES AND DETECTIVES: Gica Popescu & Arjan de Zeeuw
What happens when a secret police agency wants to bring down a team that has the backing of the country’s army? They just make spies out of players. The Romanian Securitate recruited Popescu against Steaua Bucharest. It was never clear whether he was still working for the agency when he played for Steaua on loan. For the Dutchman, however, it was the ‘idea of justice’ that inspired him to become a police detective. De Zeeuw, a former Portsmouth defender, one of Tony Blair’s favourite footballers, is a forensics specialist in just
