For a lot of former top-level footballers, their post-playing career brings a few things: punditry work, coaching, and plenty of fine wine.
Occasionally, some individuals bid farewell to the game permanently and embrace a peaceful life. Others pursue career shifts to stay engaged and keep their minds sharp.
But there are occasions that few can see coming.
If you are remembered as one of the Premier League’s most eccentric goalkeepers, this checks out.
Therefore, when Fabien Barthez, who spent four years with Manchester United, retired from football, his transition to the world of motorsport wasn’t entirely surprising. The Frenchman was known for taking risks on the field, and now he was transferring that boldness to driving.
A popular former Premier League goalkeeper decided to forge a career in motorsport
The Frenchman, a two-time Premier League winner (right), managed to fulfil his lifelong dream
‘I have always been fascinated by motorsport, even when I was playing football. It always intrigued me,’ Barthez once said.
‘I wanted to understand what it felt like being in a car. I had to wait until the end of my pro career to try it.
‘That said, it’s not like football: you can still be good even when you are 35, which was my age when I stopped playing.’
For all of his charm and his eccentricities, Barthez was fiercely private and his personal business was to be exactly that.
It wasn’t until 2018, when Barthez appeared on the French TV documentary Brothers of Sport, that his fans truly realized the depth of his passion for motorsport.
In this documentary, the two-time Premier League champion shares a discussion he had with ex-French Formula One driver Olivier Panis about transitioning from football fields to racing circuits.
That was in 1998, the summer Barthez and France won the World Cup. The goalkeeper was at the peak of his powers.
‘I spoke to Olivier during the summer. I asked him if I was a World Cup-winning footballer,’ Barthez said in the film.
Fabien Barthez took up racing after retiring from professional football – and he proved a hit
‘It all happened so quickly. We had no time to really live in the present. I was asking myself, ‘What just happened?’
He explained: ‘I’m from the generation encouraged to take full advantage of our careers, as they ended quickly. Once they concluded, they were truly finished.
‘That’s my message to the young: profit, because it goes very quickly.’
So at 36, after retiring his gloves and boots, Barthez remembered his 1998 discussion with Panis and pursued it. He was venturing into motorsport.
Football had given him a great amount: two Premier League titles with Manchester United in 2001 and 2003; Champions League glory with Marseille in 1993; Ligue 1 winner twice with Monaco in 1997 and 2000; World Cup glory in 1998; European Championships success in 2000.
At 36, he was starting fresh, taking on the challenge of making it as a professional racing driver.
The highs of the World Cup and European Championships were way off in the distance when the former United shot-stopper’s motorsport career began in 2008 at the Porsche Carrera Cup.
Racing in his Porsche 997 GT3 Cup, he finished without a point, unranked in his opening event.
The eccentric goalkeeper (left) took a while to find his feet but he would not be deterred
Later that year, he finished 33rd in the Spider Cup, again without a racing point to his name.
It was proving a ‘welcome to motorsport’ type introduction. Success on the football field counted for nothing now.
Twelve months on, he entered into the Bioracing Series, French GT Championship, and the Caterham Sigma Cup France. He failed to place in any of the events.
It took two years to land his first podium finish, claiming it in the first race of the 2010 FFSA GT Championship in Dijon-Prenois. For Barthez, who had been wedded to the idea of a career in motorsport since back in 1998, it was vindication, finally.
Now Barthez was thriving. His first race win came in 2011 and by 2013 he was French GT Champion, alongside Morgan Moullin-Traffort.
Not content, Barthez entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 2014, where he finished 29th, a credible finish in what was his first entry.
Entries in 2016 – after he had set up the Panis Barthez Competition team – and 2017 – where he had to retire from the race – was further education for Barthez in one of the most testing challenges in motorsport.
‘I know the course very well. The atmosphere, the spirit,’ he said in that 2018 documentary.
Barthez has three Le Mans entries to his name after studying up on the endurance competition
‘I spent three months learning everything I could. It was a passion that turned into an obsession.
‘It was just like football, in terms of preparing, the way the pressure mounted, you see the ground and the stadium, the pressure mounts, everything came back to me.’
And just because he is never seemingly satisfied, Barthez decided to try his hand at kicking conversions with the French rugby team just last year as they prepared for the World Cup.
At 54, it might be a stretch, but with Barthez, it’s best to expect the unexpected.
