The top footballers who tried to make it as actors…
Reports in the Metro have confirmed that Arsenal forward Lukas Podolski, 29, is set to make his acting debut with a role in German comedy Macho Man. However, he’s far from the only footballer to attempt a career as an actor.
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Check out this top ten from CaughtOffside:
10) Vinnie Jones
Jones has perhaps been the most successful in making the transition from professional Footballer to professional actor. He Welsh midfielder has had over 350 premiere league appearances for clubs like Chelsea and Leeds United, before rising to prominence in films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).
9) Eric Cantona
When he played for Manchester United, they he won four Premier League titles in a period of five years and two League and FA Cup Doubles. Since retiring he’s been in Shekar Kapur’s Oscar winning, ‘Elizabeth’ (1998), and has already acted in over two dozen movies, most of them French.
8) Lukas Podolski
Lukas Podolski has been in and out of the Arsenal team this season and it looks as though the German could already be preparing for life after football – as he stars in German comedy ‘Macho Man’. The film, based on a novel by Moritz Netenjakob, will hand the German international his acting debut.
7) Ally McCoist
There’s a little movie from 2000 that’s Ally McCoist would probably like to purge from his memory and otherwise impressive resume; ‘A Shot at Glory’. McCoist played a high-flying footballer from Arsenal who recruited by a second-tier Scottish club, managed by Robert Duvall and owned by Michael Keaton.
6) Carlo Ancelotti
Former Italian midfielder and current Real Madrid coach flirted with a side career in acting during the 1980s. The 1983, Italian comedy, The World of Don Camillo, was about a priest who coaches the town’s football team in a match an “evil” team aptly named the “Devils”.
5) Paul Breitner
He’s regarded as one of the greatest footballers ever and was named in the FIFA World Cup All-Time Team in 1994. But not many would know that he’s also starred in not one but two action adventure films, with one being a German language western.
4) Ian Wright
When he signed on for 2011’s, ‘Sun of the Black Gun’ it was not exactly an unusual move but the movie sure was. It’s about a fabled Luger gun in Romania linked to Neo-Nazis and dragons; Wright plays a Brit Gangster. Many reviewers have called him the best thing about the otherwise pathetic film.
3) Stan Collymore
Collymore’s no stranger to courting controversy in the media with his antics off the field. So call it coincidence that the movie where he gave acting a shot was none other than the ill-fated sequel to Basic Instinct that had sexual violence as one of its major themes.
2) Pele
There’s the famous ‘Escape to Victory / Victory’ (1981) with his glorious bicycle kick shown in slow-motion and him teaching Michael Caine a thing or two about on field tactics. And he can also be seen in ‘A Minor Miracle’ (1983) where he helps a bunch of orphans trying to save their home while in the ‘Hotshot’ (1987) an American soccer player trying to make it big turns to Pele for inspiration and guidance.
1) David Beckham
While he’s never given it a serious shot, Becks has appeared as himself in all three ‘Goal’ movies with more to do on screen than just kicking the ball. He also recently appeared in a special episode of the British comedy sitcom, ‘Only Fools and Horses’, taking a pot-shot at his modelling career. When asked if he’d be taking up acting as a full time profession, he replied in the negative, describing himself as being “too stiff”.
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