Spanish soccer legend Joaquin is reportedly getting ready to change into a bullfighter.
The Real Betis icon retired in April 2023 on the ripe previous age of 41. His profession spanned an astonishing 24 years from 1999 to 2023, making him one of many longest-playing La Liga stars of his time.
Joaquin has loved internet hosting his personal tv present since hanging up his boots, together with taking on a task on his beloved Betis’ board. But the busy soccer veteran additionally has one other main curiosity outdoors of soccer which he’s lastly trying to pursue.
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The 42-year-old is on the verge of fulfilling his childhood dream of bullfighting. ABC Sevilla reviews through Marca that Joaquin’s agent has held preliminary talks about getting him into the bullring in direction of the tip of the yr in his native city of El Puerto de Santa Maria, close to Cadiz.
Joaquin, who has been coaching intensely with different bullfighters virtually every day, has been an enormous fan of the game since he was younger. He is commonly seen on the bullring in Seville – however should wait earlier than getting concerned himself as a result of his hectic schedule.
(Image: Europa Press through Getty Images)
The ex-winger is thought in Spain for being a vibrant character, famously celebrating profitable the Copa del Rey with Valencia in 2008 by posing stark bare subsequent to the trophy. Three years earlier, having received the identical cup, he danced with a cape borrowed from legendary bullfighter Francisco Rivera Ordonez.
Fast-forwarding to 2019, the midfielder shocked his followers by posting a weird video wherein he dressed up in a bullfighter’s outfit and danced to Rosalia’s music ‘Con Altura’. The clip, all through which Joaquin seductively shook his hips, rapidly went viral on social media.
His ardour for bullfighting appears to have returned after saying in 2018: “I don’t want to be a bullfighter any longer…fortunately.” Since then, a number of clips have emerged of the Spaniard, who performed towards a number of generations of Spain’s best gamers, practising bullfighting and attending reveals.
And former Betis team-mate Daniel Martin Alexandre – often known as Dani – has backed him to be as a lot of a celebrity within the bullring as he was at Benito Villamarin Stadium. “The truth is Joaquin would make a very good bullfighter,” Dani predicted final yr.