We're Asking the Wrong Question About Life After Sport

Athletes are building businesses, making investments and thinking differently about life beyond sport. Here's what we can learn from it.

It feels like every week another athlete is announcing an investment, launching a business or taking an ownership stake somewhere.

A few years ago these stories felt unusual.

This year they feel normal.

That got me thinking...

This week the team here at Sportsvrse have been exploring the broad question of how athletes are preparing for life beyond their playing career.

Whether it’s coaching, punditry or starting a business, the assumption has always been that an athlete’s second career begins once the first one finishes. But looking across the sports industry this year, our team found that assumption feels increasingly outdated. The most interesting stories aren’t about retired athletes reinventing themselves. They’re about active athletes using today’s platform to build tomorrow’s opportunities long before retirement becomes a reality.

One announcement in particular caught my attention. Earlier this year, L Catterton and Patricof Co launched CHAMP (Champion Athlete Managing Partner). This $500 million investment fund allows more than 250 active athletes to become equity holders in businesses rather than simply advertising for them. On the surface, it’s another investment fund. In reality, it signals something much bigger.

Historically, building wealth beyond sport often depended on who you knew. Athletes who wanted to invest had to spend years developing relationships, learning the market and creating opportunities for themselves. CHAMP changes that. Instead of every athlete having to build the infrastructure individually, the infrastructure already exists.

Because this infrastructure now exists, the perception of athletes changes from not merely selling porducts for brands but being brand owners shaping what products look and feel like. Athletes are no longer being viewed solely as ambassadors. Increasingly, they’re being invited to become long-term partners and owners.

That same shift is visible in the decisions some of the world’s biggest athletes are making. Kylian Mbappé hasn’t just invested in businesses while playing for Real Madrid; he’s built his own with a eadership team that oversees investments across football, health, and technology. Lionel Messi has taken a different approach through Play Time, a venture firm backing companies across sport, media and technology. Their structures are different, but the thinking is remarkably similar. Neither is waiting until retirement to think about life beyond football. They’re building businesses alongside their playing careers because they recognise that their influence, credibility and network are strongest while they’re still competing.

It’s easy to look at examples like Mbappé and Messi and conclude that every athlete should now be launching companies or building investment portfolios. But another story from this year suggests the picture is more nuanced. James Milner retired after one of the longest careers in Premier League history, despite already having his coaching badges. Rather than rushing into the next chapter, he’s spoken about taking Jürgen Klopp’s advice to pause, take stock and work out what he genuinely wants to do next.

That perspective is just as important because it reminds us that preparing for life beyond sport isn’t about being busy for the sake of it. Some athletes will become founders, others investors, advisors, broadcasters or coaches. The point isn’t that everyone should follow the same path. It’s that today’s athletes have more options than ever before, and the best ones are beginning to explore those options with intention rather than waiting until they’re forced to.

Taken together, these stories suggest we’re witnessing a genuine change in how athletes think about their careers. The old model was simple: play, retire and then decide what comes next. The emerging model looks very different. Athletes are playing, building and preparing for the future at the same time, using their careers not simply to earn a living but to create opportunities that will outlast them.

As a brand marketer, athlete or organisation working with athletes, this is worth paying attention to. Athletes are more than ambassadors. They bring unique experiences, perspectives and credibility that can shape what comes next, whether that's building a business, working in media, coaching or investing. Given the right support, opportunities and people around them, they have the potential to create influence and impact that extends far beyond their playing careers.

Life beyond sport doesn’t begin after the final whistle.

Increasingly, it begins long before it.