📺 Champions League winner: This pro kickstarted his career on TV
From dishwasher to millionaire? Anyone can do that. From substitute player to regular team member? Many can do that.
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But from TV show participant to Champions League winner? Only one person has achieved that so far – Ben Greenhalgh.
The following story is something nobody will believe you when you tell it at the next pub evening.
The Brit Ben Greenhalgh already knew in 2009 that he was quite good at playing football, when he applied for the TV show Football's Next Star. And yet, the then 17-year-old had never managed to get into a youth academy of a professional club. So why not go on the show – if the winner would get a six-month contract with a Champions League club? Easy decision.
Ben Greenhalgh came, saw, and conquered. Eight episodes after his first appearance, the left winger had actually made it through. Against 20,000 other applicants. We repeat: 20,000. In the end, he held a contract for Inter Milan's youth department in his hands. The logical consequence?
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Just half a year later, the Englishman actually won the Champions League with the Nerazzurri. Before that, he had convinced coaching legend José Mourinho so much that he included him in the Champions League squad. At the age of 18, Greenhalgh was thus at the very top of the football world – and the fairy tale continued.
Without having played a single game for the professionals, Inter gave the TV star a one-year contract and then loaned him to Como. With the lakeside team, he mainly played in the youth team, before returning to England. Was that it?
Not quite: until 2025, the current manager of non-league club Margate FC still played for several semi-professional clubs – mostly in the fifth tier of English football. And because a sports career rarely comes alone, Greenhalgh suddenly made a name for himself in another discipline in 2015.
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He joined the PGA Tour and became a professional golfer for several months. A man who has convinced José Mourinho of his abilities can apparently do anything. 🤯
📸 CHRISTOPHE SIMON
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