Football is the world’s most watched and most played sport. According to FIFA, there are more than five billion fans of the beautiful game around the world. That accounts for 63% of the entire population of Earth, which is an incredibly impressive feat.
For many people, football is more than just a sport. It’s their passion. It’s their life. For these diehard fans, they’ll move heaven and earth to make sure they can watch a game, with many going so far as to follow their team around the country or even the world, just to catch every match in person.
But there are still plenty of people that haven’t caught the football fever, but many in the sport thing that it’s only a matter of time before many more people fall in love with the beautiful game.
As a result, they have devised all sorts of crossovers, collaborations, and tie-ins that have seen football mix with other sports. On other occasions, these crossovers have happened naturally as a result of players, managers, and other football personalities getting involved in other disciplines for fun.
Motorsport
On the surface, football and motorsport couldn’t be any more different if they tried. One is a working-class sport that can be played practically anywhere, as long as you’ve got a ball (or a can, or anything else you can kick around). The other is an incredibly expensive competition, even at the lowest levels, with a season in an amateur league likely to set you back at least several thousand pounds a year. It also requires you to visit a purpose-built circuit since racing on the roads is illegal.
Yet, there have been countless occasions when these two sports have crossed paths. The examples range from famous Formula 1 drivers competing in matches to football clubs entering their own teams in motorsport series.
One of the best-known examples of this was a partnership between Chelsea and Sauber F1 in the 2010s, which saw both teams promote the other within their branding. But there was a lesser-known attempt to merge these worlds together a few years earlier.
In 2008, Superleague Formula hosted its first race at Donington Park in the UK. The championship used single-seater race cars and featured famous names like Enrique Bernoldi, Sebastien Bourdais, Narain Karthikeyan, and Robert Doornbos.
The teams were, at least in the early seasons, sponsored by leading football clubs from around the world, including PSV Eindhoven, CR Flamengo, Borussia Dortmund, FC Porto, Liverpool FC, Rangers FC, and Atletico Madrid.
IMAGE HERE >>> https://images.pexels.com/photos/10807493/pexels-photo-10807493.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&w=1260&h=750&dpr=1 >>> Photo
Poker
Poker is a sport that has seen a lot of crossovers with other disciplines. This is, perhaps, thanks to the fact that it’s very easy to begin playing and it attracts adventure seekers, an attribute that most other athletes have.
Many famous footballers, past and present, have at least tried their hand at poker, including names like Teddy Sheringham and Gerard Pique. While some only do it for fun, some of these footballers have enjoyed a lot of success at the felt.
It works in reverse too. Just like we saw with Formula 1, many poker players enjoy taking part in football competitions, even if they’re not likely to make it to the Premier League. For example, at 2022’s EPT London, there were several events and activities that focused on the beautiful game. This included a five-a-side football competition that saw players like Mason Pye, Benjamin Bruneteaux, and Arlie Shaban lead teams in a tournament that one player described as “fun and super competitive”.
Horse Racing
Horse racing is one of the few sports that survives today that is older than football. It’s also up there in the UK as one of the most popular competitions, although it doesn’t quite command the same attention as football.
While there are no prominent examples of football players making a success of a career as a jockey or vice versa, there are plenty from the football world that find their way into horse racing.
Most do this through investments in thoroughbred horses. Some of the most famous examples of this include Michael Owen, Harry Redknapp, Rio Ferdinand, Diego Maradona, Robbie Fowler, and Michael Carrick. Managers have got involved too, the most famous being Sir Alex Ferguson and Kevin Keegan.
Few make much of a success in horse racing as it’s a very competitive sport, but it’s likely that most of them do it just for the thrill.
