The unique jobs football players do after they hang up their boots.
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00:00 It may be the dream of many but the career of a footballer is very short.
00:05 So how do they prepare for the next phase of their life?
00:08 From content creation to charity work, let's take a look at what some players are doing
00:12 post retirement.
00:19 Hello and welcome to Football Now from Doha.
00:23 In the modern day, top level footballers are playing for longer than they ever have before.
00:28 But the fact remains that they are still a long time retired once they finish.
00:33 Once they leave the intensity of a footballing career behind, it can leave a bit of a hole
00:37 in a player's life.
00:39 So how important is it to be prepared?
00:41 At the beginning, when you have to do the transition from football, you know, to do
00:46 some other things, either become a manager, sports director or entrepreneur, for example,
00:52 which is my case.
00:53 Sometimes it's not so easy, life can be difficult because you spend most part of your life playing
01:01 football, dressing room, stadium, travelling, entertaining people at the weekends.
01:07 And from one day to another, everything disappears.
01:11 You know, the crowd in the stadium don't have it anymore.
01:15 Team, for you, you walk on the street, nobody knows who you are.
01:20 And then you have to just, you know, put your feet on the ground and start to think, I need
01:26 to find another way.
01:28 But the good thing was, while I was playing, I was preparing my life after football.
01:34 I started to invest in real estate, I started to build other business.
01:38 We run a hotel in my hometown, which is small town, but we run a business there.
01:43 What's good for me is just bring my mentality as in sports to support the business.
01:50 Start a new business, start as in sports.
01:55 Well the good news is that these days there are more choices than ever for players post-retirement.
02:00 Even 10 years ago, it felt like the only avenues available were either coaching or punditry.
02:06 Now we're seeing players go into a wide range of second careers.
02:10 Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder Mikel John Obi has found his calling in content creation.
02:16 Mikel has complete control over his content and can interact directly with the most important
02:22 people in football, the fans, on his podcast, The Obi Wan.
02:27 I love it, I love it.
02:28 And it's also, I'm still, it's the closest that I am still to playing football.
02:32 You know, I talk about it, I interact with the fans, and that's something I never used
02:36 to do while I was playing.
02:37 But right now I have this platform whereby, you know, I interact with the Chelsea fans,
02:40 I interact with a lot of fans all across the world, and they're involved.
02:44 I feel like they're involved in what I'm doing, my next chapter in life.
02:47 And that's something I never used to do while playing.
02:49 And it's so nice to see that the fans want to go with me to this journey, to this new
02:53 journey.
02:54 And I, like I said, I want to test myself.
02:56 I want to make sure I break boundaries.
02:58 It's limitless opportunity in the podcast industry, and I want to take advantage of that.
03:03 Playing football, I want everything.
03:04 I want to make sure I do the same in my new chapter.
03:08 While Mikel is smashing it in the world of content creation, one of his former Chelsea
03:12 team-mates Claude McAlealy is helping to improve the future of the game.
03:17 As an ambassador for the Generation Amazing Foundation, Claude is helping improve the
03:21 infrastructure and sustainability of football in underdeveloped countries.
03:26 It's a cause that's very close to his heart, thanks to his Syrian roots.
03:30 My parents are from Africa.
03:32 I was born in Africa, and I think I had the same situation as most young children who
03:40 were born in Africa and who came to Europe to have a better life.
03:44 So it's a bit normal that I can join this kind of foundation.
03:50 What they're doing is exceptional in the sense that when I started playing football,
03:56 I had the opportunity for people to help me, to lend a hand.
03:59 So from the moment they gave me a hand, it was exceptional for me to be able to get
04:03 out of it.
04:04 And so I have to give that back to this new generation because the world has changed,
04:11 and it's even more difficult for them to get out of it.
04:15 So that's why I'm very, very committed to this kind of project.
04:19 For charities like Generation Amazing, the involvement of respected former players can
04:24 make a huge difference.
04:25 We caught up with executive director Nasser Al Khoury to learn what impact it has to have
04:30 someone like McAlealy on board.
04:33 We met Claude in 2018 at Cas Olypens in Belgium.
04:37 It was interesting because we partnered with Cas Olypens because they had a huge refugee
04:43 population around the club, but they didn't feel like they were integrated within the
04:46 community in Olypens.
04:47 So we created a concept called Team Integration where we invited the refugees to play football
04:51 at the club, and then they started working for the club.
04:53 So they were volunteering, they were doing the ticketing, they were security, they were
04:56 supporting the fans.
04:57 It's so important that we have legends like Claude that have reached the top and now
05:02 give back to the community.
05:03 It's so important that youth hear from these legends and hear not just the success story
05:08 but also the challenges that they faced and how they overcame those challenges.
05:11 All of our ambassadors, whether it's David Beckham, whether it's Xavi, Claude McAlealy,
05:16 they inspire youth.
05:17 They always share personal stories that really move people and inspire them to do more, give
05:24 them encouragement, again, help them overcome hardship or challenges.
05:28 It's so important and it's so crucial to the work that we do that we have these amazing
05:33 legends that promote and again, promote the work that we do but also inspire the next
05:39 generation.
05:40 It's fascinating to hear that insight from players who've taken very different paths
05:44 since hanging up their boots.
05:46 That's all we have time for this week.
05:48 Do let us know your thoughts using the hashtag #FootballNowRetirement, and we'll see you
05:52 next time.
05:53 Bye for now.
05:54 [Music]