The career of a professional footballer is short in the grand scheme of things; you can burst onto the scene as a teenager and quite easily be done by your mid-30s.
So it's important to consider what comes next – and while many players stay in and around the game as coaches or pundits, others follow altogether different paths.
Taking in cops, musicians and the president of a country, here's a look at some of the stranger jobs footballers have done after hanging up their boots. Just click any of the arrows on the right-hand side to get started!
A Norwegian midfielder who played for Molde and, er, Grimsby Town, among others, Knut Anders Fostervold was forced to retire from football in 2013 due to injury.
But that wasn’t the end of his sporting career: he took up cycling, representing Norway in the time trial event at the 2006 and 2007 Road World Championships.
Curtis Woodhouse and Leon McKenzie’s football careers coincided almost exactly – and both decided that after hanging up their boots, they would pick up a pair of boxing gloves.
Former Sheffield United and Birmingham midfielder Woodhouse went on to become British champion in the light-welterweight division, while ex-Norwich and Coventry striker McKenzie competed at super middleweight.
Fabien Barthez was always a bit crazy (as all good goalkeepers should be), so it was no great surprise to see him pursue a career in the adrenaline-fuelled world of motorsport.
In 2014, the World Cup and Euros-winning Frenchman entered the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, where he and his co-drivers finished 29th overall.
One of Tottenham and QPR’s greatest ever players, Clive Allen knew where the net was, top-scoring with 33 goals in the 1986/87 First Division.
He later had a shot at the closest thing to scoring a goal in American football, playing as a placekicker for NFL Europe franchise the London Monarchs in 1997.
Goalkeepers spend a lot of time diving around – so it’s only natural that they’d move into the theatrical world of WWE after retiring from football, right?
Well, that’s exactly what former Germany international Tim Wiese and ex-Port Vale custodian Stuart Tomlinson did (Tomlison has also done some modelling on the side).
What do Tomas Brolin and Thomas Gravesen have in common? Well, they’re both Scandinavian (Swedish and Danish respectively); they both played in the Premier League; and they both have (near enough) the same first name.
They also both became professional poker players after calling time on their football careers, with Gravesen reportedly winning around £80m as of March 2024.
A fair few footballers have gone into acting, and Eric Cantona, Vinnie Jones and Frank Leboeuf are three of the most notable.
Cantona played himself in the film Lookinf for Eric; Jones has appeared in everything from crime comedies to X-Men; and Leboeuf showed up as a doctor in Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything.
Who would have thought that Coventry City legend Dion Dublin, scorer of 122 Premier League goals and a 1997/98 Golden Boot winner, would go on to become a daytime TV sensation?
Presenting BBC property renovation programme Homes Under the Hammer, he’s had us all saying it…
“Stairs going up to the bedrooms!”
Gaizka Mendieta was a two-time Champions League runner-up at Real Madrid and Djibril Cisse won the thing with Liverpool – and both of them went on to another kind of glamour after retiring from the game: DJ-ing.
Mendieta had long had a passion for being on the decks – and as for DJibril Cisse, well, it’s in the name…
A defender who played in the Premier League for Sunderland and Wolves and won the second-tier title with both clubs, Jody Craddock hung up his boots and picked up a paintbrush.
Specialising in portraiture, graffiti and photorealism, Craddock held the first exhibition of his artwork, entitled La Bellezza della Fusione (very fancy), in 2015.
It was pretty obvious during his playing days that Daniel Agger liked tattoos – the ex-Liverpool and Denmark centre-back was covered in them – and he would eventually turn that passion into his full-time job.
In 2023, Agger co-founded Tattoodoo with Christian Stadil – owner of iconic Danish sportswear brand Hummel – and celebrity tattoo artist Ami James.
Stuart Ripley supplied crosses from the right to Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton as Blackburn won the 1994/95 Premier League title.
And he’s stayed involved since football since calling it a day as a player, qualifying as a solicitor in 2010 (he actually graduated with first class honours in law and French) and joining the FA’s Judicial Panel.
Former Tottenham, Watford and Celtic centre-half Ramon Vega featured for Switzerland at Euro 96 – and he’s since gone into an industry synonymous with his homeland: finance.
His career in that sector lasted 20 years but came to an end in 2020, when the hedge fund he managed went into liquidation.
Midfielder David Hillier made well over 100 appearances for Arsenal, helping the Gunners to the 1990/91 First Division title and successive Cup Winners’ Cup finals in 1994 and 1995.
The one-time England U21 international later went into a very different line of work indeed, putting his life on the line as a firefighter.
Standing at a towering six-foot-seven, Kevin Francis was once the tallest player in the Football League, where he starred as a striker most successfully for Stockport County in the early 90s.
He retired in 2005 and went on to emigrate to Calgary, Canada – where he served as a police officer.
A two-time Premier League runner-up with Newcastle, ex-Belgium defender Philippe Albert swapped the green grass of a football pitch for the world of greengrocery – in order to, as he told FourFourTwo in 2023, “experience the real world”.
He worked in the industry until 2012, when football pulled him back in and he became a full-time pundit on Belgian TV.
Sunderland and Derby legend Marco Gabbiadini enjoyed an 18-year professional career as a striker – before going from taking advantage of great service to provide it.
For a number of years, Gabbiadini and his wife ran a B&B in a restored Victorian hotel in the picturesque city of York. He’s also headed up management company Quantum Sport, working with footballers, cricketers and rugby players.
A popular figure at Barnsley, Wigan and Portsmouth – captaining both of the latter – Dutch defender Arjan de Zeeuw enjoyed a long career in England.
He retired in 2009 but had no intention of taking things easy. “I like to use my brain a little but,” he told the BBC in 2013 – and we imagine that working as a police detective probably does require a fair amount of thinking!
France is the second-largest wine producer in the world, and one of the country’s finest ever footballers wanted a piece of the action after retiring.
David Ginola, 1998 PFA Players’ Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year award winner at Tottenham, invested in a vineyard in his homeland’s south-eastern region of Provence. Alright for some!
Another 90s footballing David who’s made the switch from football to wine, ex-Manchester United midfielder May – a two-time Premier League champion with the Red Devils – former a partnership with a friend to import the stuff from South Africa.
He even launched a wine range called Mayson Ridge – and yes, he did take the ‘May’ part from his own name.
As a player, former West Ham captain Julian Dicks had a reputation for, well, not exactly being the most accommodating opponent.
In retirement, though, Dicks has shown a completely different side to himself, opening professional kennels with his wife. He once had 13 dogs of his own, would you believe?!
Legendary left-back in England’s immortal 1966 World Cup-winning team, Ray Wilson also lifted the 1965/66 FA Cup with Everton.
Known for his great modesty, Wilson set up a funeral home in Huddersfield – where he began his football career with Huddersfield Town – and worked in the undertaking business for many years.
Dutch centre-back Ken Monkou spent the majority of his playing career in England, featuring Chelsea before becoming a firm favourite at Southampton.
After hanging up his boots in 2003, Monkou ran a pancake house back in the Netherlands. Yum! He has also served as an ambassador for anti-racism charity Show Racism the Red Card.
Stephane Guivarc’h lifted the 1998 World Cup France, starting up front in the final against Brazil, but he retreated from top-level football after retiring a matter of years later.
Guivarc’h returned to his hometown of Concarneau and started selling swimming pools for a company owned by his childhood best friend.
As a winger, John Chiedozie often had fans jumping for joy, starring most notably for Leyton Orient, Notts County and Tottenham.
Since calling time on playing, the former Nigeria international has kept people bouncing, running a business in Hampshire renting out bouncy castles for children’s parties. He’s also a pretty good golfer, as it happens!
From scoring goals to helping celebrities achieve their car goals, Marlon Harewood went from playing for the likes of Nottingham Forest and West Ham to jazzing up expensive motors.
Among his customers, Harewood – who found the net 161 times over the course of his career – can cite Harry Kane and former England cricket bowler Stuart Broad.
A striker who played for Sunderland and Coventry, among others, and earned 10 caps for Scotland, Kevin Kyle could hardly have ventured much further from the glitzy world of professional football.
He retired in 2014 and opted for a life at sea, working as a storeman on a ship housing oil workers in the Shetland Islands.
Midfielder Philip Mulryne started out at Manchester United before spending most of his career with Norwich and winning 27 caps for Northern Ireland.
Having retired from the game in his early 30s, he retrained as a Roman Catholic priest, explaining that he “found a real sense of fulfilment” in something considerably calmer than the “huge highs and lows” of football.
Feisty former Barcelona back-up goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto was once sent off for his part in an off-field scrap during a Champions League semi-final clash with Real Madrid.
He’s channelled his energy a bit differently since hanging up his gloves in 2014, teaching popular dance-infused fitness program Zumba – in addition to starting a record label and releasing music under his rap alter ego, Wahin.
One of the ultimate Premier League cult heroes, Tino Asprilla delighted Newcastle fans during his short stay at St. James’ Park in the 90s.
What did the iconic Colombian do after retiring? He launched a range of flavoured condoms, of course – even selling them at a special price to help ease the effects of the Covid pandemic on his homeland.
Among the best African footballers of all time, George Weah was the first player from the continent to win the Ballon d’Or, scooping the prestigious prize in 1995 – before helping Milan to two Serie A titles.
Top scorer in the 1994/95 Champions League, Weah remained prominent on the world stage by serving as president of his native Liberia from 2018 to 2024.
So firmly established as a conspiracy theorist is David Icke that you might well not know that he was once a professional footballer.
He wasn’t for long, but he did play as a goalkeeper for Hereford United as high as the third tier of English football – before retiring aged just 21, working in the media then spouting all sorts of bizarre stuff.
