Author, singer, artists, footballers: Chelsea players’ off-pitch talents and pursuits
5. Juan Mata: Premier League Poet Laureate
It’s almost not a surprise that Juan Mata has “poet” among his list of abilities and vocations. When he’s not swinging free kicks around a wall or gathering players to give 1% of their salary to his Common Goal campaign, of course Mata would be found sipping a cappuccino somewhere writing verse. Let’s face it, he probably has plenty of free time now that he has finished his dual degrees in marketing and sports science.
While the rumours from a few years back of a forthcoming book have not (yet) materialized, Mata’s love of poetry goes back to his time at Valencia, when he supposedly read poems aloud in the locker room.
Of course, poetry is only one of his artistic pursuits. His photographs of a trip through India were featured in a museum exhibition. He humbly says “Obviously I’m not, and I don’t pretend to be, a professional photographer haha,” but few of his five million Instagram followers care or even agree.
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His travels are as much a part of his social media popularity as the regular glimpses inside Manchester United.