Footballers are so heavily exposed in the media that it's hard to imagine them as anything other than athletes.
However once they finish training every day they are left with hours of free time to kill in which they partake in a hobby, just like any normal person.
Many of them play golf, some enjoy playing on the Xbox or Playstation and some like to play online poker, all pretty standard hobbies for any man.
But what if you don't like golf, playstation or gambling? What else is there to do? As it turns out there's quite a lot, and we've managed to find some of the strangest off field hobbies that footballers enjoy in their spare time.
Petr Cech-Drums
Playing drums is not exactly a strange hobby, but it's not something you'd associate with a Premier League footballer. The Arsenal keeper even has his own YouTube channel, dedicated entirely to his covers of famous rock songs.
He's covered bands such as U2, the Foo Fghters and Nirvana and by the looks of things he's able to transfer his impressive skills from between the posts onto the drumsticks.
Xavi- Mushroom Collecting
No, not that kind, but yes Xavi Hernandez likes to collect mushrooms in his spare time. The Word Cup and European Championship winner has spoken about his love for picking fungi and says it stems back to his grandparents.
I like mushroom hunting a lot, and I've been really passionate about it for a long time. My family enjoy it too, my parents and my grandfather in particular encouraged me to do it.
When the autumn comes and I have a bit of spare time I go up to the mountains to hunt [mushrooms] and it's great, I love it.
Gabriel Obertan-Gardening
Former Manchester United winger and Squidward lookalike Gabriel Obertan enjoys a spot of gardening in order to help him relax. During an injury lay off at Manchester United Obertan developed an interest in gardening and spent his days helping out the gardening staff at Carrington.
Maybe if he spent his time doing rehab in the gym rather than out gardening he could have made more of a name for himself on Old Trafford.
Michael Owen- Jigsaws
After I found out he'd only watched eight movies in his entire life I was surprised to find out Michael Owen had any hobbies at all.
The former England striker and BT Sport commentator is said to be a big fan of jigsaw puzzles and was even teased about it during his time at Manchester United.
@soccerinTN My daughters jigsaw made the news I hear! You won't be surprised to find out I've still only joined 4 pieces together.
— Michael Owen (@themichaelowen) August 19, 2011
Manuel Almunia- WW2 Fanatic
Former Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia wasn't remembered too kindly for his performances on the pitch, in fact he was often the scourge of the Gunners faithful and they were glad to see the back of him when he left for Watford in 2012.
Almunia has a rather unique passion for World War Two which he likes to study in his downtime. Almunia's interest in the war came about after watching Saving Private Ryan and he even paid a visit to Omaha beach after watching the film.
Andrei Arshavin-Fashion Designer
Andrei Arshavin was sometimes brilliant for Arsenal and sometimes completely shite. I'm starting to think that whenever he played like crap he had other things on his mind, like his own fashion label which got minimal coverage during his time in North London.
Arshavin graduated from University in St Petersburg with a degree in tech and design and has even wrote a thesis on a suit that can double up as sportswear, fascinating.
Dimitar Berbatov-Caricaturist
He may not be one to smile on the pitch but Dimitar Berbatov has a keen eye for a funny picture. The former Man United and Monaco man is extremely talented with a pencil and a piece of paper as is evident by his above recollection of Muhammed Ali.
He regularly updates his Facebook page with various celebrity sketches.
There's also the fact that Denis Irwin is a bit of a beast at Chess, but sure you knew that already. Didn't you?
