Ilhan Mansiz swaps football boots for ice skates
2002 World Cup star tries out for 2014 Winter Olympics
Former Turkish international striker Ilhan Mansiz is in training to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics as a figure skater – having got a taste for it on the Turkish version of Dancing on Ice two years ago.
Mansiz won the show after being partnered with former Winter Olympics star Olga Bestandigova, now his girlfriend. When Bestandigova told the 35-year-old ex-Besiktas star she wanted to get back into Olympic contention, he decided to tag along:
We had so much fun and trained for between six and eight hours a day. We came on in leaps and bounds so we decided to train for the Olympics.
I started playing football very late too. I didn’t start playing for a club until I was 14. If you’re really determined to achieve something and you believe you can do it or you work hard at it, it’s possible no matter how old you are.
However, there’s one small problem – Bestandigova is Slovakian. So how she’ll qualify to compete in Turkey’s figure skating side is anyone’s guess.
Let’s hope ice skating’s decision makers pull a few strings to make it happen. This could be football’s greatest career change since Tomas Brolin quit football to open his own online vacuum cleaner shop.
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