In this era of professional sports, the best football players today have an audience that is nothing like anything from the past. Teams have millions, sometimes hundreds of millions of followers on social media. Fans have been flocking to chock-full stadiums in Europe for decades, and sometimes there are even travelling contingents of fans going to other countries to support their local team.
This gives them a platform to fulfil their side aspirations, if they happen to foster any. Many footballers, both past and present, have indulged in music-making at some point in their careers, especially the more famous ones. The following is a list of 9 notable footballers who also produced notable music content.
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#1 Alexi Lalas
Best-known for being a standout player in the 1994 World Cup and for being the first American to play in the Serie A, Alexi Lalas is an accomplished guitar player and musician for his old-time band. He has played in a band called The Gypsies ever since college, which even opened European concerts for Hootie & The Blowfish in 1998.
The Gypsies were featured in a self-produced, self-distributed album Woodland, released by Lalas during the 1994 World Cup.
Lalas has also released three solo albums: Ginger (1998), Far from Close (2008) and Infinity Spaces (2014). His overall body of work makes him the most prolific footballer-musician in recent times.
#2 Dion Dublin
While Dublin never gained worldwide fame, he was a famous and much-loved professional of his time in Britain. You may have seen him as a football pundit on TV, but Dublin is not anything like your typical professional footballer.
Among footballers with tangible musical ability, Dion Dublin ranks very high up the ladder. The former Norwich, Manchester United and Aston Villa striker is a skilled percussionist who is capable of tearing it up for many famous bands on stage.
The 4-times capped England international has famously devised an instrument called ‘The Dube’, which is somewhat similar to a Cajon. In the past, Dublin has played for groups like Ocean Colour Scene – for whom he played live at the University of East Anglia.
#3 Chris Waddle
As a commentator of note for US-based broadcasters ESPN, Waddle is a familiar face and voice for many football fans over the years. What many newer fans don’t know about him, however, is that Waddle has had quite the musical career for a man of football!
He has featured in some of the most popular songs performed by footballers, including ‘Diamond Lights’ and unreleased song ‘It’s Goodbye’ with Glenn Hoddle, ‘Hot Shot Tottenham’, ‘If It’s Wednesday’ with Viv Anderson, ‘World In Motion’ (which reached no.1 in 1990), ‘We’ve Got a Feeling’ with Basile Boli which reached no. 17 on the French singles chart.
With a total of 6 charted songs (with 2 smash hits), Waddle is the most prolific music performer from the football world.
#4 Ruud Gullit
One of the most distinctive players in football history, both by appearance and also by his enormous technical talent, Ruud Gullit was a cult figure of the 1980s in Europe, and as a leader of the all-conquering Milan side, he has earned a place in football folklore for all times to come.
The Dutchman, who has Surinamese roots and is a second-generation citizen, has also taken his bow in the music industry. In 1984 whilst playing for Feyenoord Rotterdam, he released the song "Not the Dancing Kind", which is mainly influenced by the raw, original reggae sounds of the Carribean islands.
In 1988 Gullit scored a No. 3 hit with the anti-apartheid song "South Africa", performing with the reggae band Revelation Time. While he does not have any more songs to his credit, featuring on an iconic hit song is definitely a highlight of Gullit’s life.
#5 Kevin Keegan
During his time in Germany, Kevin Keegan collaborated with Chris Norman and Pete Spencer, who wrote a song called ‘Head Over Heels In Love’ for the Englishman to perform. The song received a fair amount of radio play and reached a peak of no. 10 on the Germany singles charts at the time (1979), and no. 31 on the British radio station charts.
The single also has a B-side called Move On Down, which has a greater rock influence.
Post this preliminary success, Keegan released a song called ‘England’ after his return to the country from a successful spell with Hamburg in Germany. This song, once again, received significant mainstream audience attention, however, that was the last the world saw of Kevin Keegan in the music universe.
#6 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
The Swedish striker has recorded a rendition of the Swedish national anthem ‘Du Gamla, Du Fria’ – which translates roughly to ‘Thou Ancient, Thou Free’. This version of the song went viral, with over 3 million streams (the song was recorded for a car advertisement by Swedish car company Volvo).
The advertisement itself is titled as ‘Made By Sweden’. Zlatan hopes and expects that his version of the national anthem shall eventually become the most commonly used version. This song may just be one of the peeks we see of Zlatan’s singing talent, as he has a nice, thick and guttural tone to his voice and uses it to great effect in his vocals.
Let us hope he makes something more accessible to people around the world in the future.
#7 Pele
The greatest player to ever set foot on a football pitch, as well as the greatest showman football has ever seen, just had to be on this list, didn’t he?
Pele’s contributions to the world of music began in 2006, when he recorded a full-length, 12-track album called ‘Pele Ginga’ with all original compositions. The music on the album has a variety of jazz and Samba music influences, as the album by itself is an attempt by Pele to encapsulate the different musical ideas he has listened to and been influenced by, through the course of his then-65-year life.
Recently, the great man also recorded a song called ‘Esperanca’ – meaning hope in English – as a celebration of the Rio Olympics in 2016. All of his work is entirely self-composed, and with some help on the production side, Pele has successfully explored the musical side of his talents.
#8 Andy Cole
The former Manchester United and Newcastle United striker bagged bucketloads of goals in his heyday, despite never being selected for a major international tournament for England. He is a cult figure from Sir Alex’s best period, and is quite a popular footballing figure of the British community and has done significant work on reducing racism in British football.
Cole has also had a relatively successful music career for a man of football, having featured in ‘Move Move Move’, ‘We’re Gonna Do It Again’ and ‘Lift It High’ with the Manchester United squad. He released a single called ‘Outstanding’, which reached no. 68 on the charts, before shutting up shop on his music involvements.
#9 Neymar
The flamboyant Brazilian, who has a well-known interest in music and has performed with a variety of different Brazilian music acts, as well as being a well-known public and social figure, has recently taken his bow on recording his own music. The unreleased track has built up a lot of anticipation in Brazilian music circles already.
Neymar has, in the past, performed with well-known Brazilian pop star Telo, whose fame Neymar is himself responsible for - a video of Neymar dancing to his hit song ‘Ai Se Eu Te Pego’ went viral and helped it gain no. 1 status in 15 countries.
He also helped push ‘Pais do Futbol’ by indigenous Brazilian rapper MC Guime, as a challenge for the official World Cup song (Pitbull’s ‘We Are One’).
