Footballers Who Used To Be Musicians.
Ask many musicians what they dreamed of being when they were growing up and many will tell you that they wanted to be sports stars. Conversely a great deal of athletes once fancied themselves as frontmen, or frontwomen, of bands or pop groups.
Perhaps it is the shared love of performing in front of a crowd and that adrenaline rush they get when they come off stage or off the pitch, which means the two will always feel like kindred spirits.
Here are some pro footballers of past and present who in another life would have loved to have been strumming chords instead of making last-ditch tackles and thunderous headers.
Rio Ferdinand
These days Rio and his old teammate Gary Neville are the go-to men for pre-match tips, which are useful for lovers of numbers and statistics, considering the fact that today there are more and more operators who offer in-play betting, such as Mobile Wins and various other providers.
However, when he is not sharing his opinion on football, Ferdinand is well known for being a lover of urban beats. He was a regular in Manchester record shops during his time at Man Utd and even started his own record label called White Chalk Music.
The ex-England legend even went on to discover Nia Jai, whose music video he made a cheeky appearance in!
Ferdinand succeeded where so many sports stars have failed before, by founding a successful record label
Joey Barton
Joey Barton spent most of his playing days hacking people off the ball before then trying to reinvent himself as the thinking man’s footballer.
Needless to say he divided opinion during his playing days and does so too with his taste in music, often singing the virtues of Morrissey, a man who he called a modern day Shakespeare. To be fair to Joey, this was all before Morrissey went off the rails.
Leighton Baines
This Everton legend recently announced his retirement from the beautiful game, which should mean he has more time to dedicate to his true passion of indie rock and roll.
He has long been a proponent of the mod style made famous by the Beatles and Oasis, but also has more contemporary musical tastes as well, which he used to detail on his very own music blog. Baines is also friends with numerous high-profile musicians including the likes of Miles Kane and the Arctic Monkeys.
Baines has all the swagger of a frontman.
