Famous outside the pitch
Yank: Are there any players who are famous for things besides soccer?
Limey: So here’s a handful to get you started…
- Joey Barton of course. He’s famous for being a criminal, so does that count?
- There’s a handful of players who not only represented England at football, but also at cricket, which is quite a feat, and is very unlikely to happen again.
- Vinnie Jones (who we’ve probably mentioned too many times before, seeing as he’s the only footballer Americans have ever heard of apart from David Beckham) is probably better known as a second-rate actor rather than a second-rate player.
- Apparently, Gordon Ramsay “lied about his football career to raise his celebrity profile”. This is according to the The Daily Mail, so take it with a pinch of salt.
Of course, many players are famous for their antics off the pitch as much as on, whether they’re caught taking drugs in nightclubs, sleeping with women other than their wives, crashing sportscars, and causing all kinds of mischief when they should know better.
Yank: So I guess the answer is no. I’m surprised.
Limey: You’ve never heard of Gordon Ramsay or Vinnie Jones?
Yank: Sure, I know that hard man, but he’s not really famous for his acting. Gordon Ramsay I’d never heard of.
Limey: Ooh, I thought of another one: George Weah. Surely you must have heard of him? After playing for Monaco, AC Milan, and his home country of Liberia, he ended up being a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, but unfortunately failed in his bid to become the Liberian president.
As you don’t know who Gordon Ramsay is, I feel it’s about time the two of you became acquainted:
