In terms of surprising career pursuits outside of football, Mathieu Flamini trumps most. While ex-Liverpool goalkeeper Pegguy Arphexad was recently forced to deny he had become a porn star in his native Guadeloupe, and former Portsmouth defender Arjan De Zeeuw is a forensic detective in Holland, they pale in significance to the career of Mathieu Flamini, who has yet to even retire.
Flamini has built up a multi-million dollar business empire, which he managed to keep secret from even his family. Flamini co-founded a biotechnology company called GF Biochemicals, who use waste wood to manufacture a chemical called levulinic acid, which is capable of replacing oil in the manufacture of plastics. The company has struck oil by not hitting the oil industry and has the added benefit of being good for the environment. The company is enormously successful: it produces 10,000 tonnes of levulinic acid, and has offices in Holland and the US along with a factory in Italy, employing 50 people.
No figures are mentioned in the Financial Times interview, but it is estimated the company could be worth up to £20 billion.
Remarkably, Flamini kept his entire venture secret from his family, along with friends and teammates for some time. Flamini has given an interview to today's Financial Times where he reveals why he kept it secret for so long:
I didn’t want to mention it before because I was not 100 per cent sure about the success of the company. I didn’t want to scare anyone — especially my family.
Flamini also reveals his teammates (understandable) surprise when he would leave training in a suit: whereas Mesut Ozil will spend afternoons on Instagram, Flamini would dash off to meetings and conference calls.
The interview features the usual football clichés,about how football taught him to take risks, but Flamini also intriguingly reveals the influence Arsene Wenger has had on his career:
Arsène is a kind of mentor for me. He is someone who will always keep his calm, and I have learnt from him never to take a decision in the heat of the moment.
Read the full interview here.
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