They are not just soccer players! These are the athletes who have other parallel professions
The Russian World Cup 2018 has everything, even players and leaders who are engaged in other parallel activities. Iceland points the ranking
The Selection of Iceland made its debut in FIFA World Cup, and although its participation was short, its name will be remembered for several reasons. The first is that Iceland is the smallest country to play in a FIFA World Cup. The second is that this selection ruined the premiere of one of the great favorites, Argentina, and his figure Lionel Messi. The third is because two of its members are engaged in another profession in parallel.
Leer en español: ¡No son solo futbolistas! Estos son los deportistas que tienen otras profesiones en paralelo
LatinAmerican Post details the occupations of goalkeeper Hannes Halldórsson and dentist Heimir Hallgrímsson. We will also review the cases of some footballers and former soccer players who, in unison, worked or dedicated to another job, or who completed a university career.
Among them, there are many recognized athletes as the former Dutch player Dennis Bergkamp, the Spaniards Juan Mata and Xabi Alonso. Also on this list, there are other not so famous sportsmen like the Belgian goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, the Spanish midfielder Esteban Granero, and the English defender Glen Johnson.
Lived it. Loved it.
Farewell beautiful game. pic.twitter.com/1aSN7GGNzZ
– Xabi Alonso (@XabiAlonso) March 9, 2017
A filmmaker who starred in his own movie
BBC Mundo reports that Iceland is a country that has around 330 thousand people and among them there are only 100 players considered “professionals”. The rest of its players, several of them members of this unprecedented World Cup adventure, are amateur or “federated”. In 2012, this Scandinavian country ranked 120th in the FIFA ranking, and is now among the 30 best in the world. Therefore, its participation in Russia 2018 was considered a feat, according to the same medium.
Hannes Halldórsson will be remembered mainly for ruining the debut of superstar Lionel Messi, because he stopped a penalty kick on Saturday the 16th of June in the third round of the group stage. In this match, the Europeans equaled 1-1 with Argentina for the start of Group D.
It is clear that he is not an internationally recognized goalkeeper, but that play somehow put him on the map. What many do not know is that the main interest of the aforementioned goalkeeper is not football, but cinema.
Halldórsson plays for Rangers FC of Denmark, and his previous “great achievement” between the three clubs was to keep the Icelandic bow unbeatable in a match of 2012 against Cyprus, which is not a powerful team and when Iceland had not gained the notoriety it has today.
Who is now considered a hero in Iceland, was director of the video of the song that represented his country in the well-known Eurovision music competition in 2012. By dedicating more to football in recent times, Halldórsson reached an agreement and the company producer with which he worked promised him the return of his employment once his soccer “journey” is over.
Abandoned his patients by some players
Halldórsson is not the only one in the friendly Scandinavian selection that is dedicated to another job. Heimir Hallgrímsson, the technical director, used to be a dentist. At the beginning of his career, the coach was dedicated to curing teeth. How? The technician extracted teeth during the morning and trained football at night.
On the portal Mundo Deportivo, the renowned Catalan journalist Francesc Aguilar, explains who Hallgrímsson was, and the first thing he collects are the statements of the mentioned coach. “I worked as a dentist from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon, before training the IBV from five o’clock. All my day was to work. When I began to collaborate with the federation, I started to go less to the clinic and this year I have hardly gone. “
The funny thing is that he uses ‘tricks’ from a good dentist to deal with his players: “Working as a dentist has helped me a lot. Many people are afraid of going to the dentist, so you have to find the best way to talk to them. You have to relax one, be fun with another, serious with the third, but quick to adapt to each personality, you practice as a psychologist rather than as a dentist. I do the same with the soccer players “, reflects Aguilar in his writing.
According to Aguilar, Hallgrímsson, born in the town of Vestmannaeyjar, is already 50 years old and began his career as a coach in women’s football, which until a few years ago had had better results in his country than the men’s, reaching the quarterfinals of the Eurocopa 2013. After starting his coaching career in 1993, he alternated his dentistry profession with the women’s teams of Hottur and the IBV.
In the case of the women’s IBV, Hallgrímsson led him to the First Division, to then have him finish twice as the league runner-up, leading them to win one of the two finals of the Icelandic Cup that he played. The results obtained with female IBV led him to be appointed coach of the men’s team of the same team, with which he finished tenth and two third times between 2009 and 2011. In this same year, Hallgrímsson was hired by the Icelandic federation, as Swedish assistant Lars Lagerback, with whom he co-chaired the 2016 European Championship, in which Iceland reached the quarterfinals after eliminating England in the last 16.
Other cases in the world
The Icelanders are not the only ones with cases of double profession. Recently, LatinAmerican Post reviewed the other job of the stellar Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta, who already in the final stage of his career is investing much of his money and time in the wine business. In addition, he has a diploma in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences.
Also read: How curious! Are football events related to births?
Telemundo Deportes did an interesting photographic work in which he mentions former footballers, soccer players and leaders, and the different trades they studied or those who did well either in parallel or after their retirement. The Dutch Dennis Bergkamp, already retired, decided to study Mechanical Engineering.
Few know that the young Spanish midfielder Esteban Granero, of Real Espanyol, is also a psychologist; while Liverpool’s Belgian goalkeeper Simon Mignolet studied Political Science. The Spanish Juan Mata of Manchester United, is an example to follow, because in addition to being a football player has in his curriculum with two university degrees, one of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences and another in the area of Marketing.
Already retired, the former Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, Xabi Alonso, can now invest more time in his university career, that of Business Administration; while the English defender of Stoke City, Glen Johnson, is a virtuoso of mathematics, area of which he has a diploma, although he has not yet been able to dedicate himself full-time to that profession.
LatinAmerican Post | Onofre Zambrano
Translated from “¡No son solo futbolistas! Estos son los deportistas que tienen otras profesiones en paralelo”
