The average length of a footballers career in the current day and age is 8 years. With the average age of retirement being 35 years old, it’s safe to say that footballers have a much shorter time period to make a sustainable living than other professions.
It is exhaustively documented that footballers make thousands, even hundreds of thousands of pounds a week. Some earn more money in a month than some people make in a lifetime; let that sink in for minute.
This aside, beneath the public eye of many of these footballers, lie some very successful entrepreneurs. Some pursue their own businesses alongside their playing careers, while some wait until their time as a footballer draws to a close.
When faced with retirement, footballers have a plentiful number of options as to how they will next earn a living. Become a TV pundit? Start a reality TV show? Maybe become a foul-mouthed Michelin-star chef? Or in Gordon Ramsay’s case, pursue just about all of them!
Life after a footballing career is not the end of the world, with the right people and support around them; former players are more than capable of achieving great things outwith the sport. It is for these very reasons that 360 Sports Consultancy was created, a full service management firm taking players from youth through to first team and then assisting them beyond their playing career with a vast amount of employment opportunities.
Above: 360 Sports client, Jim Goodwin after accepting his new job offer this year.
A prime example of a retired footballer that has invested his money wisely and created a highly profitable business of his own is former Liverpool and England striker, Robbie Fowler. In recent times, it has become more common for sportsmen and sportswomen to run property businesses alongside their sporting careers, however when Fowler decided to hang-up his boots, he took his own start-up to another level. His empire of a property development business is now estimated to be worth around £31 million. Subsequently, his passion and commitment to the industry has led him to open the Robbie Fowler Property Academy. The institution gives likeminded people an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the market from initial investment, developing and selling property. At just £1,000 a head, Fowler is greatly profiting from sharing his knowledge and expertise on the industry with those interested in property development as a career.
Footballers have the fundamental attributes needed to be successful businessmen; they have experienced, quite literally, the blood, sweat and tears of hard work, felt the pain of rejection and failure, and are familiar with the sweet taste of success. These are all practices that successful entrepreneurs have been through in the process of achieving their goals. Although critics sometimes portray footballers as being heavily overpaid and generally overly flashy with their money, there are some very intelligent current and former players that have made millions beyond their sporting careers.
Looking back, maybe Gordon Ramsay should have pursued his exceptional cooking talents before considering a career in football.