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Former AC Milan and Barcelona star, now he works at a restaurant

This former player now has a life far removed from soccer.

By Darwin Largo

This former player now has a life far removed from soccer.

The dream of every kid who starts playing soccer is to become a star and make it to the best teams in the world. However, once there many players do not enjoy the media exposure and pressure from fans, and once their career is over they decide to walk away from the sport altogether.

 

Others choose football-related activities and devote their entire lives to these tasks. Some become television commentators, others become agents and representatives, and some make a career as coaches. This former player started out as a manager and was very successful, but then changed his mind and chose another path.

He is Frank Rijkaard. As a player he excelled at AC Milan and Ajax. In fact, in the Italian side he was part of a historic team between 1988 and 1993, with which he won 2 Serie A titles and 2 Champions League titles. After finishing his playing career at Ajax in 1995, he started working as a coach. He first coached the Netherlands national team and then Sparta Rotterdam, until he finally arrived at Barcelona in 2003.

There he did a great job and turned the Catalan side into one of the best teams in the world. With the squad, which had stars such as Ronaldinho, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Lionel Messi, he won 2 La Liga titles and the 2005/06 Champions League.

 

It was never the same again

After achieving great success with Barcelona, in 2009 he was hired by Galatasaray of Turkey. Then he also coached the Saudi Arabian National Team between 2011 and 2013, but there the results were not positive. That is why he decided to step away from soccer and live a completely different life. Since 2014 he has been in the hotel and catering business, as he is the owner of the Dengh restaurant in Utrecht.

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