The first time Mathieu Flamini turned up to the Arsenal training ground in a suit, his baffled teammates asked if he had mistakenly thought it was a match day.
“When they saw me going into training dressed in a suit, they asked, ‘Where are you going? The game is this weekend’.”
In fact, the French player was keeping a secret. For the previous few years, he had been working on a biotechnology company that he believes could help address environmental damage. While other professional footballers might spend their free time on games consoles or posting photos on Instagram, the Arsenal midfielder spends his negotiating deals and taking conference calls.
And while footballers’ retirement plans commonly involve going into management, punditry, or perhaps running a pub, Flamini hopes to prove that success on the football pitch can lead to success in the boardroom.
Having spent several years keeping his business ambitions from his fellow players, fans and even family, Flamini has begun to go public. What do his teammates think of the venture? “It was a big surprise for them,” he admits.
Flamini’s company is GF Biochemicals: the G refers to Pasquale Granata, his business partner, and the F to Flamini. It produces a chemical called levulinic acid from waste wood, which can then replace oil in a range of products from fuel to plastics.
“[Granata and I] were both very concerned by climate change and we wanted to do something about it,” explains Flamini. “So we started meeting scientists at the Polytechnic University of Milan and started research to develop that technology.”
Having given his name – or at least a letter of it – to the company, the international footballer knew it would attract disproportionate attention, so he kept it under wraps in those uncertain early days.
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