A football player’s career in the English Premier League lasts for 8 years on average. Some world-class players buck the trend and compete for more than a decade at the highest level.
Mathieu Flamini, Arsenal’s combative midfielder, is one player preparing for his post-playing days.
Flamini is renown for his high intensity work-rate on the field and his never- say- die attitude. However, he is currently on the wrong side of his 30’s and has been spending more time on the sidelines as Francis Coquelin and Santi Carzola have cemented their place as the preferred central midfield pair in Arsene Wenger’s first eleven.
When an athlete gets involved with technology, be in the know with the SportTechie newsletter!
But Flamini recently took the soccer world by surprise when he announced that he has co-founded a potentially revolutionary biochemical company that could change the face of the energy industry.
In 2008, while Flamini was plying his trade at Italian giants AC Milan, he partnered with Pasquale Granata to set up GF Biochemicals and lead the way in several scientific breakthroughs. The gunner kept this enterprise very close to the chest: “Not even my family knew anything about it. My parents did not know about it until about a year ago” he told The Sun in an interview this week. “To me, it was an escape. A football career is made of ups and downs” he continued. “I don’t think Arsene Wenger knows, I never spoke to him about it”.
It seems like Flamini will not have to follow former soccer players in moving towards a post-playing career in media or coaching. Instead he will be focusing on transforming the green energy industry and tackling issues close to his heart: “I was always close to nature and concerned about environmental issues, climate change and global warming,” he explained in his interview.
Flamini only revealed that he was working on the project after the organization managed to become the first company in the world to mass produce Levulinic Acid (LA), which is assumed to be able to replace oil in all its forms. This revelation could easily bring a new era in the energy industry, as Levulinic Acid can substitute oil in bio fuel, plastics, cosmetics and even food preservatives.
The estimated market for LA? 30 billion dollars. This would represent a massive return on investment for Flamini who, along with his business partner, poured millions of dollars into research, employee fees, trials and infrastructure. However, money was not Flamini’s primary motivation, which further separates him from today’s soccer athletes. “I was not thinking about losing millions. When I started I knew it would happen but of course there are times when you doubt,” he confessed in his interview with the Sun.
Flamini stands on the brink of something huge, but he still has two years left on his contract with Arsenal. This year, they are considered serious contenders in the race to the Premier League title, and with Coquelin sidelined for the next two months with injury, he might need to step in and provide his team with some solidity and energy he is known for. After that, the world beckons.