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Most football supporters would give their right arm to play the sport for a living, so the fact that there are top pros out there who couldn't give a toss about their job is a bit grating.
Despite it being one of the most glamourous and well-paid jobs on the planet, plenty of top-level footballers have admitted they don't much care for the beautiful game, as bonkers as that seems.
Whether they hate the lifestyle, the very notion of kicking a ball about, or they simply that their heart belongs to another game, a decent number of the world's very best stars have admitted being totally indifferent about the sport they dedicated almost all of their young life to.
So without further ado, here are eight footballers who don't actually like football.
READ MORE: 'I won Premier League with Chelsea – but only like watching footy down the pub now'
Wayne Bridge
Former Chelsea and Manchester City defender Wayne Bridge is the latest self-confessed football apathist after admitting on That Peter Crouch Podcast that watching the sport "bores" him.
The 43-year-old, who won the Premier League and FA Cup in his six-year stint at Stamford Bridge, said he might tune to a big match if it was on when he was in the pub, but other than that he steers clear of his former profession entirely.
"I don’t not like it [but] I wouldn’t go out my way to watch it. I like it if I’m in the pub. Maybe I don’t like, maybe I just like being in the pub! I’ll watch it with my mates if we’re at the pub. Man City against Real Madrid, it’s great to watch, the way they [City] played. But you could waste 90 minutes of your life watching a s*** game. Why would you do that?"
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Gareth Bale
Gareth Bale didn't so much dislike football as he did absolutely adore golf.
The Real Madrid and Tottenham icon admitted back in 2018 that, like Bridge, he barely ever watched the sport, preferring instead to stick the golf on the telly, cemented the famous flag bearing the words: "Wales. Golf. Madrid. In hat order."
Drivers over divers, eh Gareth?
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Gabriel Batistuta
Gabriel Batistuta, aka 'Batigol', might have played the game with a smile on his face – unsurprising given his scoring record for club and country – but he wasn't all that enamoured with football.
The Fiorentina and Argentina legend, who enjoyed his best form in the 1990s, once told a Spanish newspaper: "I do not like football, it is just my profession."
His true passion? Polo – which in Argentina is played by more than just drunken aristocrats, apparently.
Bobby Zamora
Bobby Zamora not only admitted he "wasn't a massive fan" of football but claimed that loads of other players he encountered felt the same way, even if they didn't admit it publicly.
"I don’t watch games on an evening or anything like that," the former West Ham, Fulham and Tottenham striker told the Daily Mail. "Quite a lot more players than [those who admit it] are the same.
"I’m not sure what I want to do after I finish playing but if it means watching football then I don’t want to get involved."
Benoit Assou-Ekotto
Ex-Tottenham defender Benoit Assou-Ekotto went one better than Zamora. He insisted football was "just a job" and slammed his fellow pros who claim, insincerely in his view, to 'play for the shirt' rather than for money.
"Why did I come here? For a job. A career is only 10, 15 years. It's only a job … football is not my passion," he told the Guardian. "I have never bought into the hypocrisy of football. [It] is just a job, a means to an end … there are more important things in life than kicking a ball around.
"Yes, I play for money, but then doesn't everybody who gets up in the morning and goes to work? It infuriates me when footballers go on about playing for the shirt. I think they should be held accountable for it when they kiss the badge and six months later clear off for a better pay day." Oof.
Carlos Tevez
Like Bale, Carlos Tevez's love of lady golf left him utterly disinterested in football.
"If Barcelona and Real Madrid are playing each other, but there is a golf tournament on another channel, I'll choose to watch the golf instead," he admitted back in 2019.
True to form, when placed on gardening leave by Manchester City after refused to come as a substitute in a Champions League clash against Bayern Munich in 2011, he jetted off to Argentina to play endless rounds of golf. When he returned, he celebrated his first goal back by mimicking a golf swing. Oh Carlos, whatever next.
David Bentley
Unlike the others on this list, David Bentley's disillusionment with football was more gradual and melancholic. The former Arsenal, Tottenham (Again? That's the fourth time!) and Blackburn midfielder retired from the sport in 2014 aged just 29, having come to the realisation that the life of a footballer simply wasn't for him, particularly with the advent of social media.
"I remember walking my dog, thinking ‘This ain’t for me’," he told the Mirror. "I remember being a bit disappointed in myself. I was thinking: ‘You should love it, what’s the matter with you?' But in the end I just got tired of all the bull**** that goes with it, people wanting you to sell yourself as something you’re not."
His story has a happy ending, mind. A few months later he opened a restaurant in Marbella and he and his family have been living the Life of Riley ever since.
Carlos Vela
Carlos Vela was tipped for the top when he broke into Arsenal team as a teenager, but he never really got his career off the ground.
A big reason, it later turned out, was a lack of ambition stemming from the fact he didn't really care that much about football.
"I really like basketball, I've always said that I would one thousand times rather watch a basketball game than a football one," the Mexican, who lined-up alongside fellow football apathist Bale at LAFC in 2022, revealed back in 2018.
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