“Mantenha a política fora do futebol” é uma frase frequentemente repetida nas redes sociais em resposta a questões dentro e fora do jogo.

Apesar disso, há muitos ex-jogadores de futebol que optam por não seguir esse conselho, optando em vez disso por ingressar no serviço público e se tornarem políticos, impulsionando eles próprios a mudança.

Embora Gary Neville tenha aparecido recentemente no palco com o líder trabalhista Keir Starmer, o ex-lateral do Manchester United descartou um futuro imediato na política. Independentemente disso, ainda existem outros 18 que se dedicaram à política governamental.

18. Sol Campbell

Ex-Tottenham , Arsenal ( abre em uma nova guia ) e zagueiro do Portsmouth, Campbell, passou seus dias de jogo no Newcastle em 2011 e inicialmente se interessou pela política britânica após a aposentadoria.

Tendo-se alinhado anteriormente com as políticas do Partido Conservador, o antigo internacional inglês revelou em 2014 que estava a considerar candidatar-se a um cargo público, em parte numa tentativa de ajudar a garantir o “voto negro” para os Conservadores.

No ano seguinte, Campbell avançou na corrida pela indicação conservadora para prefeito de Londres, mas acabou não conseguindo entrar na lista.

17. Albert Gudmundsson

Gudmundsson foi o primeiro de seus compatriotas islandeses a se tornar jogador profissional, passando sua carreira no Rangers, Arsenal, Nancy, Milan (abre em uma nova aba) , RC Paris e Nice, bem como Valur e FH em seu país.

O ex-atacante entrou na arena política em 1970, ingressando no Partido da Independência e tornando-se vereador de Reykjavik. Foi então eleito deputado quatro anos depois, antes de ser nomeado Ministro das Finanças em 1983 e Ministro da Indústria em 1985.

16. Andrei Arshavin

O ex-atacante do Zenit e do Arsenal, Arshavin, teve sucesso ao conseguir um cargo político na Rússia. Um tanto familiar para os fãs dos Gunners, ele errou.

O ex-capitão da Rússia também concorreu pelo Rússia Unida de Vladimir Putin nas eleições para o conselho regional de 2007, mas desistiu antes de qualquer voto ser dado para se concentrar no futebol. Ele pendurou as chuteiras em 2018, mas não voltou à política desde então.

15. Roman Pavlyuchenko

Not many people could juggle the demands of being a Premier League striker and a politician, but Pavlyuchenko gave it a try. In 2007, a year before he joined Tottenham, the Russian marksman secured a seat in his hometown of Stavropol for Putin’s party.

A Russian football commentator claimed the only reason Pavlyuchenko took to politics was because “the international financial crises affected his wages”. He managed more votes than goals, though.

14. Marc Wilmots

In between becoming Belgium’s top goalscorer at World Cups and managing the national team, Wilmots had an unsuccessful stint in Belgian politics. After hanging up his boots in 2003, the ex-striker was elected to the Senate as a representative for French-speaking liberal party Mouvement Réformateur (MR).

But the Bull of Dongeleberg, as he’s apparently called in his homeland, resigned in 2005. Four years later he became Belgium’s assistant manager, then took the top job from 2012 to 2016. He later coached the national teams of Ivory Coast and Iran.

13. Zico

One of Brazil’s greatest ever footballers who was part of the legendary Selecao side which graced the 1982 World Cup, Zico became the country’s sports minister in 1990.

The former Flamengo man advanced a number of reforms to improve Brazilian football, but was left frustrated when a parliamentary vote was continually delayed and duly vacated the post just over a year later.

After various managerial spells including positions with Japan, Iraq and Fenerbahce, Zico announced his intention to run for the FIFA presidency in 2015. He failed to secure the backing of five national football associations, however, and was therefore forced to withdraw from the running.

12. Lilian Thuram

Thuram has won pretty much everything he’s ever been involved in – even a debate with the future French president. In 2005, the then-UMP leader Nicolas Sarkozy took on Thuram in a national television debate where he labelled kids from the French ghettos as “scum”. The former right-back replied to the right-winger in typical no-nonsense fashion: “I’m no scum.”

Two years later, the freshly-minted President Sarkozy offered the World Cup winner a role as Minister of Diversity. Thuram declined.

11. Grzegorz Lato

The 1974 World Cup Golden Boot winner boasts a century of Poland caps and bagged 45 goals for the national team.

He also entered the political cauldron in 2001 as senator for the Democratic Left Alliance Party, before taking on the role of president for the Polish FA. In that position, he sacked Dutch coach Leo Beenhaker live on television after Poland’s failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup via a 3-0 defeat by Slovenia. Ouch.

10. Jozsef Bozsik

Pictured fifth from the right in the image above, Bozsik was part of the iconic Hungarian “Golden Team” which came agonisingly close to winning the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland.

A mainstay at Budapest Honved throughout his club career, the midfielder was elected as a member of the National Assembly of Hungary while still a footballer in 1953, aged just 27.

He later became manager of the Hungary national team, appointed in 1974 and tasked with guiding the team to the World Cup four years later. Ill health forced him to resign almost immediately, though, and he died of heart failure in 1978.

9. Pele

Regarded by many as the greatest footballer who ever lived, Pele has enjoyed a diverse career since retiring from the game in 1977. As well as holding positions as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and a UN ambassador for ecology and the environment, the former forward spent time as Brazil’s Extraordinary Minister for Sport.

He even had a piece of legislation named after him – the “Pele law” – as he sought to reduce corruption in Brazilian football, but he left his position in 2001 after being accused of involvement in a corruption scandal himself.

8. Hakan Sukur

The brilliantly-nicknamed Bull of the Bosphorus is Turkey’s all-time record goalscorer, while he’s also considered a legend at Galatasaray, for whom he found the net 295 times across three spells.

The former striker turned his hand to politics after retiring, winning a seat in the Turkish parliament in 2011 as a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

He resigned from the party two and a half years later, but remained an MP as an independent.

Sukur then hit the headlines again in 2016, when a warrant was issued for his arrest after he was charged with “being a member of an armed terror group” a few months on from a separate charge of insulting president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Twitter. He current lives in exile in the US.

7. Oleg Blokhin

Confounding the old saying, Blokhin is a jack of all trades and master of one or two. The record goalscorer for Dynamo Kiev and the Soviet Union became the first manager to qualify Ukraine for a major tournament when the Yellow-Blue made it through to the 2006 World Cup, and he even found time to be elected into the country’s parliament.

The sexegenarian was voted in with the Hromada party in 1998 despite being a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine at the same time. And they say men can’t multi-task.

6. Titi Camara

Former Lens, Liverpool (opens in new tab) and West Ham (opens in new tab) striker Camara spent most of his playing days in England and France, before returning to his native Guinea after retiring from football in the mid-2000s.

After brief spells as both national technical director and head coach of the national team in 2009, Camara was installed as Guinea’s Sports Minister following the election of president Alpha Conde. He lasted until 2012.

5. Andriy Shevchenko

The legendary Dynamo Kyiv and Milan striker scored goals for fun throughout his playing career, notwithstanding a fruitless spell at Chelsea (opens in new tab) between 2006 and 2009.

Shevchenko had already dabbled with politics while still a footballer, backing the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine in the late 1990s and then endorsing presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych in 2004.

It was therefore no surprise when the former centre-forward threw his hat into the ring in 2012, immediately joining the Ukraine – Forward! party following his retirement in 2012. Shevchenko failed to win a seat in parliament, though, and later returned to football to manage the national team.

4. Kakha Kaladze

One of Georgia’s greatest ever players, the former Milan defender hung up his boots in May 2012, but his political career began a few months before that: in February of the same year, Kaladze joined the Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia party and then became an MP in October.

Just two weeks after his election, the two-time Champions League winner was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, a move which many criticised due to Kaladze’s business interests in the sector. He currently serves as the Mayor of Tbilisi, a position he has held for five years.

3. Gianni Rivera

Apenas Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi e Alessandro Costacurta fizeram mais jogos pelo Milan do que Rivera, que vestiu a famosa  camisa rossoneri  em 658 ocasiões entre 1960 e 1979.

Ele inicialmente se tornou vice-presidente do clube após encerrar a carreira de jogador, mas em 1986 o ex-meio-campista voltou sua atenção para a política. Rivera tornou-se deputado do partido Democracia Cristã no ano seguinte e mais tarde serviu como subsecretário da Defesa, antes de se tornar eurodeputado (membro do Parlamento Europeu) em 2005.

2. Romário

Um dos maiores atacantes de todos os tempos e uma autêntica lenda brasileira, Romário foi mais longe do que a maioria quando se trata de trocar uma carreira no futebol por uma na política.

Sob a bandeira do Partido Socialista Brasileiro, o ex-líder do PSV, Barcelona e Flamengo foi eleito para a Câmara dos Deputados, a câmara baixa do Congresso, em 2010, e usou sua posição para fazer lobby contra a realização da Copa do Mundo de 2014 no Brasil.

Pouco depois desse torneio, Romário foi eleito para o Senado brasileiro, recebendo mais votos do que qualquer outro candidato que já se candidatou a representação no Rio de Janeiro. Ele ainda está no cargo hoje, mas representa o Partido Liberal desde 2021.

1. George Weah

Em 2005, logo após o fim da Segunda Guerra Civil da Libéria, o vencedor da Bola de Ouro de 1995, Weah, anunciou suas intenções de concorrer à presidência na Libéria. Mas, por mais popular que fosse na sua terra natal, a oposição citou-o como um político inexperiente e sem educação e rotulou-o de “bebé na floresta”.

Weah perdeu para Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, formada em Harvard, mas em 2014 ele derrotou seu filho Robert no Senado do Congresso pela Mudança Democrática.

Isso não foi tudo. Weah teve outra chance na presidência em 2017 – e desta vez teve sucesso. O ex-emprestado do Chelsea obteve 61,54% dos votos para derrotar Joseph Boakai no segundo turno.