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5 world class football players who have played other sports

Some football players are extremely talented in more than just the beautiful game. There have been cases of some stars even winning silverware in other vocations, proving how great they actually are.

Surprisingly, even FIFA World Cup winners have tried their hands (and feet) at other activities either before or after finding the beautiful game, and here are five of the best multi-sport footballers.

Lev Yashin

The Russian is regarded as possibly the best goalkeeper to have ever played the game.

Called the “Black Spider” or the “Black Panther”, the former Soviet Union goalkeeper won several awards for club, country and personally throughout his playing career.

While the keeper might be remembered for his incredible performances between the sticks, Yashin also played ice hockey for Dynamo Moscow and won the Soviet Cup in 1953.

Bixente Lizarazu

Lizarazu lifted the World Cup with France in 1998 and the Euro 2000 with Les Bleus too. The former Bayern Munich defender also had a successful career with the Bavarians winning several Bundesliga titles.

The Basque-French footballer took up Brazilian jiu-jitsu after his footballing days and became the European champion in the Blue Belt Senior 1 Light Division.

Joe Hart

Joe Hart

The Englishman is another goalkeeper that excelled at another sport. Hart will be remembered as part of the Manchester City side that won the Premier League with that last-second Sergio Aguero goal, but the current Burnley man is a talented cricketer.

Hart played for Shrewsbury CC and was part of Worcestershire’s youth team for a couple of years.

The Englishman has had a fantastic football career though, with two Premier League crowns and an FA Cup to go during his time at the Cityzens.

Ivan Perisic

Perisic currently plies his trade at Inter Milan and was one of Croatia’s stars in the 2018 World Cup.

Ivan Perisic

The winger helped the European nation to the finals, but they could not complete their fairytale as France had other plans.

The former Borussia Dortmund and Wolfsburg man is great with another big ball, and participated in the 2017 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour for the Porec Major Tournament.

The Croatian was paired with Niksa Dellorco, but they lost their opening tie of the tournament.

Clive Allen

Allen is regarded as of the best strikers in the English game from his time and he made a name for himself while playing for Tottenham.

The striker ended up playing for seven London clubs throughout his career, and the forward took up another sport where his kicking would have been used a lot.

Allen played for the London Monarchs in NFL Europe in 1997 and was their specialist goal-kicker.

The Monarchs didn’t last long in the competition as they were replaced by the Berlin Thunder, but the English side did win the first World Bowl in the 1991 season.