The rich history of soccer is full of rememberable iconic players, but every now and then I come to recall former players that after a successful career just seem to have vanished of the face of the earth. Where are they? And perhaps more importantly: What are they doing?

In the coming weeks I intend to do some research on some of these ‘forgotten’ players and discover how their ‘life after football’ looks like.

Fabien Barthez

Everyone can probably remember the French bald headed goalie that rose to stardom in 1998 when he won the World Championship with the national team. He also guarded the goal posts during the 2000 European Championship in which France beat Italy in the final after David Trezeguet scored the golden goal in extra time.

Having played for Toulouse, Marseille and Monaco, Barthez joined Manchester United in 2000. After a couple of years in England, Barthez moved back to Marseille, and closed off his career at Nantes.

I remember Barthez as a brilliant goalkeeper who was cable of producing some spectacular saves. On the other hand he also had a habit of taking risky and sometimes unpredictable decisions that weren’t always very beneficial to the team. Nevertheless he deserves a place in the history books as one the best French football players of all times.

Where many players after their professional playing career end up in affiliated positions such match commentary or staff functions at a club, Barthez decided to leave the scene.

After some investigation it turns out that after his active football career, Barthez decided to try his luck in the motorsport. He has raced in several major events such as the Porsche Carrera Cup France and the French GT Championship. He also participated in the 24 hours of Le Mans three times.

Barthez once stated in an interview that it is has always been his dream to race and decided to give it a go when he quite playing football. He referred to a conversation he had years ago with Olivier Panis; a former Formula 1 driver, where the two joked about swapping careers. Funny enough this became a one-sided reality.

Having said that, he did not completely abandoned football. Since 2014 he has been working as a general manager for the French Ligue 2 football club Luzenac AP.

Will we ever see him back in one of the major leagues? Perhaps a a manager? Time will tell!