FOOTBALL followers have been left dumbfounded after a former Champions League winner introduced his new wine enterprise – however it had nothing to do along with his function as wine salesman.
The Czech Republic worldwide began their profession with Banik Ostrava earlier than incomes an enormous transfer to Serie A in 2000.
The ex left winger joined Italian giants Napoli after impressing for his nation at Euro 2000.
He went on to make 51 appearances and scored eight objectives throughout his two-year spell in Naples.
That led to a stint on mortgage at Udinese, which ultimately changed into a everlasting transfer and three seasons with the Italian facet.
West Ham had been linked with our thriller ace – however he spent three years with Udinese as a bunch of Europe’s high golf equipment began circling.
Ultimately, in the summertime of 2005, he was snapped up by AC Milan and he went on to get pleasure from enormous success on the San Siro after changing to left full-back.
And the top was undoubtedly the 2007 Champions League closing.
He began in defence for Milan as two objectives from Filippo Inzaghi sealed a 2-1 victory over Liverpool.
The person we’re speaking about is none apart from the now 45-year-old Marek Jankulovski.
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And he continued to get pleasure from success at Milan as they lifted each the Fifa Membership World Cup and Uefa Tremendous Cup later that yr.
His performances in 2007 additionally earned him the Czech footballer of the yr accolade.
Jankulovski and Milan then celebrated successful the Serie A title in 2011 however that will show to be his closing marketing campaign on the membership.
He returned to boyhood membership Banik Ostrava that summer time however the fairytale comeback resulted in disappointing trend.
The Czech icon made his debut in opposition to Hradec Kralove in October however managed to play simply eight minutes after coming off the bench as he suffered a knee harm.
That turned out to be his final skilled sport as he introduced his retirement attributable to harm in February 2012.
The 78-capped nationwide hero did handle to tug on the boots once more 12 months later in entrance of a packed crowd for a farewell match that had been organized by the membership.
Jankulovski was employed as a advisor by Banik and in addition began work in his homeland as pundit for Champions League matches.
He was then named as Banik’s sporting director in June 2018 however left the function two years later.
Now he has a brand new job away from the pitch as he shared his information on Instagram – and his followers may barely imagine that it was him as he appears to be like utterly unrecognisable from his heyday.
Standing in entrance of an enormous barrel of wine and holding a bottle of it, he captioned the snap with: “Italy, wine and soccer.. Introducing WINE LEGEND – Marek Jankulovski. Many due to winemaker Fabio for together with me within the chosen firm of champions for whom he completely produces wines. Information on the place you possibly can order wine will likely be added quickly.”
One response learn: “He has aged like a high quality wine.”
Whereas one other wrote: “It took me some time to work out who this was.”