Footballers Who Have Gone Pro In Other Sports

Football is one of the biggest sports right now, with an estimated five billion football fans around the world. The skills that are developed in professional football can be transferable to a variety of other sports, making a career switch to a different sport not too unlikely. Due to the short career of a footballer and the high risk of injury, new sports may be the way forward for some players. 

Many footballers discover a passion for other sports while still playing professionally. While members of the public might explore different sports like horse racing or rugby through media coverage, casual participation, or promotional offers such as free bets, professional players are sometimes introduced to alternative sports through personal connections, family traditions, or early-life exposure. In some cases, this interest develops into a serious ambition, leading to success in a second professional sport.

With that in mind, here’s a look at some footballers who made the leap and turned pro in other sporting spaces.

Curtis Woodhouse

While not the most recognisable name in football, Woodhouse was a professional footballer nonetheless, playing for the likes of Birmingham City, Mansfield, Harrogate Town, Peterborough United and most notably making 104 appearances with Sheffield United. The midfielder had even made 4 appearances at an International youth level, before taking his focus to boxing in 2006. Woodhouse admitted he had always had a love for boxing, even participating in street fights over the years, resulting in the decisions to be made that he would step away from football and take boxing to a professional level. 

After one professional boxing match, he returned to football, only to leave the sport again to return to boxing during his time at Rushden & Diamonds. However, in 2007, he decided that he would play professional football part-time and continue his professional boxing career, having over 30 professional fights and winning the British Light-Welterweight title before his retirement from the sport in 2014. His football career ended 2 years prior in 2012, but after his professional boxing retirement, he began his football management career, returning to the sport he once loved.

Petr Čech

Petr Čech will forever be regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers to have ever played in the Premier League, with some of the most iconic saves and a prestigious trophy record. There aren’t many goalkeepers who come close to his degree of skill. Known mainly for his time in London at Chelsea and Arsenal, Čech is a legend of the game with four Premier League titles and a Champions League to his name, but upon his retirement, he wasn’t ready to give up the gloves quite yet. 

Čech had a fond love for Ice Hockey after being brought up with it from a young age, so it only made sense for him to pursue that passion post-retirement from football. He joined Guilford Phoenix in 2019 to embark on his professional Ice Hockey journey, where he made 18 appearances, 6 coming in his first season. Čech has seen some changes in clubs; however, at the age of 42 as of 2025, he has not retired from Professional Ice Hockey.

Paolo Maldini

Another one of football’s greatest ever players in their position has made the list of footballers to have turned professional in other sports. However, Maldini’s is slightly different. While Čech still stuck to his goalkeeping roots, Maldini swapped boots for rackets. One of the greatest defenders of all time, Paolo Maldini, made 647 appearances for only one club in his career, his beloved AC Milan. Captaining both his club and national team, he is regarded as one of the best the world has ever seen, but less can be said for his short professional career in tennis. Maldini always had a love for the sport and decided to train in hopes that one day he might make it to a professional level. 

After retirement from football in 2009, he had plenty of different business ventures to continue his career in the game, such as even co-founding his own club in the USA, but it wasn’t until 2017 that we got to see Maldini take to the court in his first professional tennis match. He took to the court in an ATP Challenger tournament after qualifying, playing a doubles match with his professional partner and coach. Maldini was defeated in his first game and retired after describing his debut in professional tennis as being like ‘writing a poem after studying years of maths’. His short one-game career ended in the same year of 2017.

Ivan Perisic

Ivan Perisic is a Croatian legend, representing the national side 142 times and making over 500 appearances in his professional career. He’s most known for his seven-year spell at Inter Milan, where he made a name for himself in Italian football and left as an iconic part of the giant club. However, in 2017, rumours spread about his future at Milan, linking him with a move away from the Italian side, but this didn’t affect the Croatian star, as he took to the sand to make his debut as a professional volleyball player. 

Not only has he represented his country in football, but now also volleyball, with the winger admitting that volleyball is a sport he has always loved since the age of 10. His career in volleyball wasn’t as prolific as his football career, continuing to play for Inter until 2022, and he is still playing as of 2025 at the age of 36.