It can’t be easy, holding down a place in the Manchester United and England teams while also serving as de facto Deputy Prime Minister. But Marcus Rashford seems to be managing it. After the footballer’s high profile campaigns on free school meals and homelessness, we look at some of the other sports stars who swapped the pitch for politics.
George Weah
Rashford’s predecessors in the world of soccer haven’t always focused on Lamborghinis and nightclubs. The Brazilian Socrates founded the Corinthians Democracy movement to oppose his country’s military government, while in 2014 his compatriot Romario went one stage further and got himself elected to the Brazilian senate.
In 1997 Liverpool’s Robbie Fowler was fined £900 for lifting his shirt during a game to reveal a T-shirt expressing sympathy with some sacked dockers (it was a spoof Calvin Klein design showing the word ‘doCKer’). But no one can beat George Weah, the ex-Chelsea and Manchester City star who in 2018 became president of his native Liberia.
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