Bayern Munich's Javi Martinez is one of the most versatile footballers around. Comfortable as a central defender or holding midfielder, he can also play in more of a box-to-box role when required.
But who knew that he was also a fantastic writer? So good in fact, that he was the one who coined the concept for one of the most successful book/movie franchises of all-time. Or so he claims. You see, Javi Martinez came up with idea for The Hunger Games.
Yes, that one. The smash hit series of movies and books that raked in almost $3billion in box office revenue from four star-studded movies. In a recent interview with German football magazine Socrates (h/t Goal), he claimed that he had come up with a novel that was almost identical to The Hunger Games, only to be beaten to fame and glory by 2008 by Suzanne Collins:
Writing is a great pleasure for me, even as a teenager I started to write a book.
And believe it or not, the plot was pretty much the same as 'The Hunger Games'.
That was strange (seeing the movie), I was sitting in the cinema and thought: ‘It does not exist, that's my idea, which I had years ago, the creators must have stolen my computer’.
The series focuses on a dystopian future, wherein teenagers are forced to fight for their lives in a showpiece even by eliminating (i.e. murdering) their opponents, and earn vast fame and glory when they overcome the odds and emerge victorious. The exact same as the road to becoming a professional footballer so.
Martinez has said that despite this heartbreak, he continues to write. Perhaps one day he will get a move franchise of his own. For now, he must settle for earning vast sums of money to play football everyday. Unlucky Javi.
