Scott Fitzgerald, the American novelist, once wrote, “There are no second acts in American lives.” The same could be said of Premier League footballers, who on average have an eight-year professional lifespan playing in the top soccer rankings and mostly retire in the mid-30s. Which leaves an awful lot of years left missing the roar of the crowd when you scored that winning goal.
On top of which, the earning power of a professional footballer also has a brief window. On average, a Premier League player earns £60,000 a week or around £3m a year – which is why so many throw cash away on fast cars and *cough* faster women. When you’re a young god, thinking about your retirement in your twenties seems unimaginable.
However, some Premier League footballers have swapped one goal for another, making the transition from professional soccer star to successful entrepreneur.
Some of them, like ex-Liverpool star Robbie Fowler and Manchester United striker Dion Dublin, have gone on to become property moguls – Fowler’s personal fortune from property is estimated to be £31m and, at one point, Liverpool fans would chant, “We all live in a Robbie Fowler house” to the tune of Yellow Submarine. Indeed, fellow Premier League footballer Steve Howard has gone on to mentor young footballers swimming with cash on how to invest wisely in property and set themselves up for life.
Others have arguably gone on to have even greater careers off the pitch than when they were playing in the Premier League.
Former Arsenal midfielder Matthieu Flamini has launched a company making an ecologically friendly oil substitute for use in plastics and fuel which could, according to Forbes, become a $33bn market, while closer to home former Southampton striker Dexter Blackstock believes his blockchain-driven solution to stamping out counterfeit drugs and repeat ordering of highly addictive opioids could become one of those fabled unicorns, a company worth $1bn in revenue a year.
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