Thomas Gravesen’s life since hanging up his boots in 2008 has been as wild as his antics on the field.
The former Denmark international, appropriately nicknamed ‘Mad Dog’, is well known to British football fans. He made a name for himself in the Premier League as a tough-tackling midfielder for Everton, before bizarrely being signed by Real Madrid at the height of the club’s star-studded Galactico period.
Playing alongside the likes of Roberto Carlos, Raul, Luis Figo, David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo, the maverick more closely resembled a bouncer protecting his more gifted team-mates – when he wasn’t beating them up himself. And after a short and not very sweet two-year spell in Spain, he headed to Celtic and bagged himself a Scottish Premiership winners’ medal.
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He decided to call time on his career in 2008 at the age of just 32, having earned 66 caps for Denmark and represented his country at Euro 2000 and Euro 2004. “I have had fantastic years abroad. I played and lived in four countries,” he said
Gravesen, who to this day maintains his Scouse accent, matched his eccentric demeanour on the pitch by dating Playboy model Kira Eggers between 2005 and 2008. But the next stage of his life revolved around his next partner.
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He met Czech-born model and real estate agent Kamila Persse at the end of his playing career, which saw him swap Glasgow for Las Vegas. The 48-year-old had invested his £85,000-per-week Los Blancos earnings wisely, giving him the financial freedom to relocate to Nevada with Persse and her son from a previous relationship.
According to Danish tabloid BT, Gravesen made a mammoth sum of around £100million from his investments. He put his wealth to good use, gambling in Las Vegas’ legendary casinos, where he developed a passion for poker.
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(Image: Facebook)
He was reportedly a regular at the high-roller poker tables in Vegas, managing to keep a low profile as a non-celebrity. Gravesen and Persse embraced the Vegas lifestyle, buying a huge villa in a gated neighbourhood called The Canyon Fairways in August 2013 for $1.125m.
The property boasted 10 rooms, four bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a swimming pool, and a garage that could accommodate three cars. Their neighbours were none other than tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, and Hollywood star Nicolas Cage.
(Image: Facebook)
The area is surrounded by lavish golf courses, including the TPC Las Vegas, Tournament Players Club Summerlin, and Angel Park Golf Club. Gravesen reportedly also owned a Mercedes SLR McLaren – a sports car that can cost up to £400,000.
“There’s a reason why he lives his life over there,” his friend Niclas Jensen told BT back in 2016. “And it’s not because I have to tell so much about it. But he seems happy and as if it works really well for him to live there.”
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Persse continued her work as a real estate agent while Gravesen continued to rake it in from home, starting a company called Thomas Holdings. His glitzy Vegas life did not last forever, however, packing up his bags and moving back to Denmark in 2018 after splitting from Persse.
He moved back into a £1.6m penthouse he’d bought back in 2010 in his hometown of Vejle. He has since given up his secretive life in America, returning to the public eye as a football pundit on Discovery.