When Harry Kane’s NFL Kicker future would place in him the wildest post-football careers

Harry Kane reportedly still has his eye set on becoming an NFL kicker but he would not be the first footballer to have an unusual post-playing career.

While Kane has understandably restricted his ambitions to roles that don’t require you to be steamrolled by 140kg men, it is still an unusual choice for the current Bayern Munich star.

A report from The Athletic says Kane wants to balance playing in the MLS with a kicking role for an NFL team and here’s seven other players who have completely switched careers post-football.

George Weah – President

Footballer to president tends to be reserved only for roles at FIFA but George Weah became president of an actual country after he hung up his boots.

The former Milan striker retired in 2003 and formed his own political party in his home country of Liberia.

After the end of the Second Liberian Civil War in 2005, he announced his intention to run for president but lost out. He was a running mate in 2011, again unsuccessful, before finally winning in 2017. He even had Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o at his inauguration.

Socrates – Doctor

Considering he shares a name with the renowned Greek philosopher, it makes sense that Socrates was one of the smartest men to ever kick a ball.

The Brazilian great faced a choice in his early life between medicine and football after he earned a medical degree but the pay for kicking a ball around was far greater and so he chose that progression.

But once he retired, he practised medicine in Ribeirao Preto until his sudden death at the age of 57.

Vinnie Jones – Actor

Plenty of footballers have tried their hand at acting but Vinnie Jones is the only to make a serious career out of it.

He got his break in Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and to be honest, has played the same role ever since.

Fabian Barthez – Motorsport

Former Manchester United goalkeeper Barthez swapped the goal line for the cockpit as he began a career in motorsport a year after he retired.

He drove in a number of GT series but his most impressive feat was driving in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. In the 2014 edition, he and his team finished 29th which is not bad for a former footballer.

He clearly enjoyed it as he formed his own racing team with former F1 driver Olivier Panis and they entered the 2016 event, where the team finished 12th.

His final attempt came in 2017 in which he DNFed and he left the sport in 2019.

Thomas Gravesen – Business entrepreneur and poker player

Gravesen was very smart with his money during his playing days and made €100m in investments just five years after his retirement.

But his life changed when he met Czech model and real estate agent Kamila Persse.

It was her that convinced the former Galactico to move to Las Vegas and according to Danish media, Gravesen spent his hard earned money at the poker table.

Gravesen lived the Vegas lifestyle with a 10-bedroom villa with $1.125 million and had shared a street with Andre Agassi and Nicolas Cage but the expensive excursion came to an end in 2018 when he split with Persse.

The former Everton midfielder moved back to Denmark and into a £1.6m apartment. Not bad.

Matheu Flamini – Eco-warrior

If we told you that Flamini founded a company that mass-produces levulinic acid, you would probably have no idea what that means. Which is fair enough because we didn’t either.

There’s a lot of big words coming but it is a versatile bio-based organic compound that is used in cosmetics and biofuels. Flamini’s company GF Biochemicals is the first that has been able to mass produce it.

So basically, Flamini is trying to save the world by cutting down on fossil fuels. Good lad.

Tim Wiese – Professional wrestler

While Grant Holt and Wayne Rooney have tried their hand in the ring, Germany goalkeeper Wiese reached the WWE.

His relationship with the US wrestling goes back to 2014 when he claimed he was offered to essentially join the WWE academy. In June 2016, he was invited by Triple H to train at the company’s main facility and then made his WWE debut at the Munich event later that year.

He did though leave the company in 2017.