Celebrities who started out as footballers

Soccer unites people in every corner of the world, but what few people know is that some celebrities, before being international stars, had a past on football fields. Take a look at this gallery to find out who they are!

Pope John Paul II was always a great football afficionado. A die-hard KS Kraków fan, he was the goalkeeper of his favorite team before becoming pope.

Football was not the only sport practiced by Wojtyla (the name of John Paul). His other great passions were skiing, swimming and rowing.

A broken leg kept the famous Hollywood actor and ex-husband of Melanie Griffith, Antonio Banderas, away from the football fields.

A fan of the Spanish team of Malaga, he played in many small clubs in his hometown but had to interrupt his dream of playing professionally because of a bad injury. And we're glad he chose acting as an alternative path.

As a teenager, the eternal secret agent James Bond was an excellent soccer player. He also defended the colors of Bonnyrigg Rose who contested Scotland's amateur divisions.

Reportedly, the great actor turned down an trial for Manchester United when he was discovered as a soccer talent during a match. Thanks to this unusual move, we have the legacy of the late actor's great films.

Before becoming one of the biggest names in romantic music in the world, Julio Iglesias devoted himself to sports. He was even the goalkeeper for Real Madrid.

Unfortunately, a terrible car accident put an end to his great dream of playing as the goalkeeper for his favorite team.

In his youth, the legendary tenor tried his hand at sport as a goalkeeper in the youth academy of Modena, his hometown.

He dropped out because his mother reportedly convinced him to take up teaching. In fact, he taught for about two years in an elementary school. After that, music changed his life path forever.

In the 60s, singer Rod Stewart had several professions. One of them was that of a football player.

The star played for Brentford Football Club in London. Yet, though football was his first calling, the British singer certainly didn't miss out on success after pursuing his second calling, which is music.

One of the world's greatest - or at least most cameragenic - chefs, Gordon Ramsay, began his life as an athlete at Oxford United, England, before moving on to Glasgow Rangers.

A knee injury took him away from the field forever, but the accident opened the door to another successful path, as a chef, entrepreneur, and TV maker.

Known for his masterpiece ' The Stranger,' the existentialist writer Albert Camus played as a goalkeeper for the University of Algiers soccer team. At the age of 17, however, he contracted tuberculosis and, under medical advice, he had to give up the game.

The star of 'House of the Dragon' was trained as a footballer in the teams of Northampton Town, Nottingham Forest, and Leicester City academies. He was a young promise in the Premier League at the end of the 90s.

When he was 16 years old and part of the Leicester City youth team, Matt Smith received a harsh diagnosis that forced him to give up on his football career. He was diagnosed with cervical spondylosis, a degenerative back disease that makes sports performance at the highest level impossible.