Who are some celebrities who played soccer when they were younger? Actually, I should probably change the title and say celebrities who try to play soccer and show up for the occasional charity match on occasion. Although there are a lot of professional athletes who play who used to play soccer and are pretty good.
And not disrespect to them, much respect to them for trying. Soccer is sort of like learning a new language, if you’ve never had any base foundation as a child, speaking another language or using your feet as in soccer, it makes things hard when you get older to train your feet or your tongue. Using your feet to kick the soccer ball rather than your hands, is like rolling the r’s in Spanish for some people.
Mia Hamm, Stephen Moyer, Nomar Garciaparra
It makes it a lot easier if you’ve touch the ball a bit as a kid, as most people have. But a majority of young soccer players in the U.S., and celebrities, left the beautiful game around high school and took up American football, baseball or basketball – the three big sports in America.
It’s not tool late though, and why not take a spin in the game? Many stars of movies and film have an artistic sense, and come to see that soccer is an intricate and skillful game, fast paced and much harder than you think. And, the game is growing in popularity in the United States, so it’s cool to like soccer.
Here are a few of the celebrities who have shown they’re fans of the game and kicked the ball on occasion:
Will Ferrell (Actor and comedian is now co-owner of Los Angeles FC)
Justin Bieber (Pop superstar)
Gilles Marini (”Dancing With the Stars” runner up 2009, Dante in “Sex and the City”) Anthony La Paglia (”Without a Trace”) Donal Logue (Sean Finnerty in “Grounded for Life”) Billy Duffy (lead guitarist, “The Cult”) Steve Jones (drummer, “The Sex Pistols”) Chris Harrison (Host: “The Bachelor”, “Antiques Roadshow”, “Hollywood 411″, and HGTV: “Designers Challenge”) Jason Barry (Tommy Ryan in “Titanic”) Brandon Routh (Superman in “Superman Returns”) Josh Hutcherson (Jess Aarons in “Bridge to Terabithia”) Coyle Girelli (lead singer, “Your Vegas Band”) Jimmy Jean Louis (”The Haitian”, “Heroes”) Christian Olde Wolbers (guitarist, “Fear Factory”) Stephen Moyer (Plays Bill Compton in HBO’s vampire series “True Blood”) Rivers Como (Lead singer and gutarist for the band Weezer) Ryan Sheckler (Skateboarder/Life of Ryan) Donald Faison (TV show “Scrubs”) Benji Madden (Good Charlotte) Maksim Cherkovski (Dancing with the Stars) Ty Pennington (Extreme Makover: Home Edition) Tony Hawk (Professional skateboarder) Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor (Beach volleyball gold medalists from the Olympic games in China) Drew Carey (Sounders owner and “Price is Right” host) Andrea Bowen (“Ghost Whisperer and “Desperate Housewives”) Mark Consuelos (“All My Children” and married to Kelly Ripa of “Live with Regis & Kelly”)
Britney Spears (Pop singer, mother, tabloid icon) Wants Beckham to give her some lessons. She said: “David Beckham is my favorite soccer star, and he’s a cutie! I’m not a very good soccer player, so I have to get someone in to help me – maybe he can!”
A number of NBA players play in Steve Nash’s NY charity soccer event: “The Showdown in Chinatown”: Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa, Joakim Noah, Jason Kidd, Baron Davis
Played Soccer Before They Were Famous:
Jon Stewart Played soccer at William and Mary. You’ve probably seen him to a promotion for Fox Soccer Channel. Andrew Shue: played soccer at Dartmouth where he was an All-American and also played in Zimbabwe, for the Bulawayo Highlanders, the Zimbabwe national champions. Ethan Zohn: The winner of Survivor Africa co founded Grassroots Soccer, which uses soccer to educate people about HIV/AIDS; Vassar College, and played professionally for the Hawaii Tsunami and Cape Cod Crusaders of the United Soccer Leagues and in Zimbabwe for Highlanders Football Club. Robert Gibbs: The White House Press Secretary and a key member of the Obama campaign, played goalkeeper for the North Carolina State Wolfpack soccer team. Chef Gordon Ramsay: Ramsay was a promising schoolboy who was monitored by Rangers over a three-year period. “During this time, he played a couple of non-league matches as a trial player. A knee injury put paid to any further hopes of being signed by Rangers.”
Then you’ve got nearly the whole Hollywood United team. With guys like: Anthony LaPaglia, Dermot Mulroney, Jason Statham, Brandon Routh, Ralf Little, Donal Logue, and Jimmy Jean-Louis, singers Robbie Williams and Ziggy Marley, and film director Danny Cannon strapping up the boots on Saturdays and Sundays.