When Footballers Make Music: The Best and Worst Attempts

When Footballers Make Music: The Best and Worst Attempts

From footballers with legitimate crossover potential to those that should never pick up a mic again, we take a look at some of the best and worst footballer-turned-musician moments.

“Most rockstars want to be footballers, and most footballers want to be rockstars.”

Big Issueopened their 2015 Gary Neville profile with that quote from the former Manchester United right back, and it surely rings true over a decade later.

Like Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz discovering calculus independently of one another, the quote has been said in some form or another by the likes of Lil Wayne, J. Cole, Dwyane Wade, and countless other music artists, athletes, and pundits.

With the line between artist and athlete more blurred than ever, we take a look at some of the best and worst attempts from footballers making music.

Best

Amadou Onana

Considering Amadou Onana is a no-nonsense box-to-box midfielder, some may assume that his to-do list merely consists of crunching into tackles and covering every blade of grass.

However, Onana is a man of many talents and off the pitch, one of them includes singing. The Belgian, whose stage name is 24 AM, cannot be boxed in as an artist as he explores different genres throughout his music — from R&B and French rap to “Sexy Drill.”

The Aston Villa dynamo has released a mere four singles, but his best work to date is “Check On Me” — a soulful R&B track where he raps in both French and English — exploring personal relationships, betrayal, and dark times behind closed doors.

The hook stands out on the 2024 single, and in fairness to Onana, the same can be said for all of his releases, “My Space” and “Mexique” in particular. Onana is a multi-talented musician and perhaps one day, he too could find tangible success in his second love like former Barcelona goalkeeper Jose Pinto, who famously became a Grammy award-winning record producer after retiring.

Rafael Leao

Flamboyant, expressive, and self-assured are adjectives one would use to describe Rafael Leao as a footballer, and the same applies to him as an artist.

Much like Onana, Leao is also a multilingual artist that releases music under a different moniker, WAY 45. He raps in both Portuguese and English that is typified by a melodic, trap heavy sound. To the AC Milan winger’s credit, he makes bangers and the best place to start is his 2021 single, “Ballin.”

Leao isn’t afraid to flex, as the Portuguese international is quick to remind listeners that his “wrist is swollen” as he dons a “Rolex with diamonds” on the track.

Much like on the flanks, Leao is far from being a one-trick pony, and on his other tracks like “God” and “Turn Up A Notch,” the 26-year-old explores more introspective themes.

It’s safe to say that Leao does not consider music as a mere hobby, having released three albums to date, and with time, he continues to better his craft. Not to compare Leao to actual superstars like Travis Scott and M Huncho, but it seems like his melodic rap style, 808s-infused beats, and unique ad libs perhaps give a first-time listener a sense of the wideman’s approach inside the booth.

Bradley Wright-Phillips

Unlike Onana and Leao, Bradley Wright-Phillips cannot be considered an artist, but when he did rap, the 41-year-old made headlines for the right reasons.

Congolese winger Yannick Bolasie engaged in a friendly feud with Wright-Phillips in the 2010s and famously, the pair exchanged bars in a surprisingly impressive grime clash considering it was all a bit of fun for the popular battle rap series Lord of the Mics.

The duo threw jabs at each other’s careers but in fairness, both forwards in question appreciated each other’s clever bars and acted like good sports.

Wright-Phillips perhaps had the standout bars during the clash as he said “You’re better off saving your bread, cuz you’ve got the same stats as the ref, no goals in 20, a bloody disgrace at best!”

However, Bolasie had similarly hilarious shots aimed at the former New York Red Bulls striker, as he notably rapped, “Looking bare eager, couldn’t score goals in the Championship, that’s why he went down to League One, Brentford didn’t want him neither.”

Both Wright-Phillips and Bolasie displayed that they could have gone pro as grime MCs as well, but during the course of their box office battle, the former had the edge as the latter sometimes deviated away from the theme of taking the mickey out of his mate.

The Worst

Alphonso Davies

Unarguably one of the best left backs on the planet, Alphonso Davies has yet to hit the same heights as a rapper to say the least.

The Canadian international’s verse on Stugang’s 2021 release, “Nur Weil” is suggestive of his inadequacies as a rapper as the defender simply did not sound menacing enough on a drill song.

It was hard to believe Davies’ claim on the track that his “finger goes itch” every time he “grabs on a stick.” The obviously fabricated bars were clearly just trying to adhere to standard themes in drill music, and he couldn’t have sounded more out of place.

Similarly, Davies’ short freestyle upon extending his contract at Bayern Munich until 2030, “Munchen My Throne” was yet another drill track where he seemed out of his depth.

Lyrics like “red kit on my back and the goals come early” were one of the many unimaginative references to his Bayern career and the derivative drill beat did not help the treble-winner’s case.

However, Davies told CBS Sports that his “rapping career is over” and it would be harsh to be too stringent on his musical career as he was merely exploring a hobby at the time.

Memphis Depay

In fairness to Memphis Depay, he makes some catchy music, and he seems to make a concerted effort to explore different flows and try to create ear-candy hooks.

However, Depay’s bars come across as rather generic, one of many being “I’m in Four Seasons all four seasons” on “Fall Back” — a flex parroted by Pusha T, Deezie Brown and Bubba Sparxxx on tracks like “F.I.F.A,” “Anna Wintour Freestyle,” and “Represent,” respectively — and one that will likely never go extinct.

Big Sean has often come under widespread scrutiny for habitually including at least one utterly bizarre bar in every song and without comparing the Detroit rapper to Depay, the latter suffers from the same tendency.

“I be saving people’s lives like Dida,” on Fall Back is one such Depay-ism, as the Brazilian goalkeeper would save shots, but not lives, as the World Cup winner does not have a medical background.

“Tell the haters kiss my ass, tell a hater I got alligator toilet paper, wipe my ass off” from his 2020 release, “2 Corinthians 5:7” further strengthens the case against Depay’s lyricism.

However, Depay seems to be growing as an artist as since his move to Corinthians. He has experimented with Brazilian rap music, even rapping in Portuguese on releases like “Echoes of a New World” and “Falando com as Favelas.”

John Barnes

John Barnes is widely heralded as one of Liverpool’s greatest-ever players, but one of his most unforgettable moments as a footballer was his rap verse on New Order’s iconic song, “World In Motion.”

Dedicated to the Three Lions ahead of the 1990 World Cup, the song went on to go No. 1, but even so, Barnes’ flow is remembered for being comically one-note, accompanied by a confusing bunch of lyrics.

To start off the verse, the Englishman states, “You’ve got to hold and give but do it at the right time, you can be slow and fast but you must get to a line” just reads and sounds like a manager’s pre-match team talk from hell.

“Catch me if you can because I’m the England man” sounds like self-parody and Barnes’ deadpan delivery genuinely makes one question whether the verse was a comedic bit.

Despite the Kingston-born icon not being as gifted a lyricist as he was a winger, his feature and the song has reached legendary status and is remembered fondly by England fans to this day.