SAINTS 'N SINGERS, Dani Osvaldo: Former Southampton and Italy striker is singer with rock band Barrio Viejo in Barcelona
The forward swapped goals for penning hits, so SunSport wanted to see what the fuss was about and went to see Osvaldo's band play.
EXCLUSIVE By Adrian Addison in Barcelona
EX-FOOTBALLERS tend to spend their later years reclining on a plush sofa in a TV studio or reducing their handicap on the golf course, while some scream from the manager's dugout.
But none of those retirement plans appealed to Dani Osvaldo, the 32-year-old former Southampton, Roma, Juventus and Italy bad-boy.
Instead, Osvaldo dropped football to pick up the mic and became a rock star.
The Buenos Aires-born frontman now plays in Barcelona for Barrio Viejo, a band he formed with a bunch of musician friends he met in a bar when he signed for Espanyol in the city.
"I was 30 years old when I quit football," Osvaldo told SunSport ahead of a gig in Mr Robinson's, a popular bar in the heart of the city.
"And people say that's the age when a footballer reaches his peak.
"People just don't understand it, you know, they look at me like 'you're crazy. You had everything.
"You played in some of the best teams in the world and you decided just to quit to do this? You're nuts'. People don't understand. But it's my passion."
And as a latino Johnny Depp, he even looks the part too plus, well... the ladies love him.
The front line at a Barrio Viejo gig is invariably filled with hot young females.
It's a very different life from the near military routine of a highly-paid professional footballer, in which the club often tries to oversee pretty much everything their employee does - from the hours he keeps, to what he eats and drinks.
Smoking - most definitely, in the modern game - is a no no, and Dani likes to smoke.
Disciplinary problems dogged his football career. He was sacked by Boca Juniors for a cheeky toke in the dressing room.
And a £14million move from Roma to Southampton came to an end after 13 games and three goals when he had a training ground fight with teammate Jose Fonte.
He was loaned out to Juventus, where he subsequently won the league.
"There are so many many rules in football. So so many rules. And I'm not good with the rules. I like to be free," he said with a percussive burst of laughter, cigarette in one hand - Jack Daniels in the other.
"I am proud of my career and I owe everything to football. But in football you have to live a life that's not real.
"You have a price, a value. It's crazy. If you're good you're worth 50 million and if you're not good you're worth nothing.
"If you score a goal you are a God and if you don't you're a s***.
"The only thing that matters about you is Daniel Osvaldo the football player, but they don't give a shit if you're a good boy or not. Or if you have feelings.
"I didn't like that. I'm a sensitive person. I was tired. I was going crazy and I decided to live the musician's life instead.
"I left football and I don't feel heavy any more. I feel free and relaxed. I'm so happy now."
And he really seems it too. Almost every sentence is completed with a raucous, Keith Richards style laugh.
Osvaldo has Italian and Argentine passports, and the highlight of his career was pulling on the Italy shirt and taking to the pitch 14 times with the likes of Buffon and Totti - legends he used to play with only on his PlayStation.
Those were sweet days. But now his focus is on Barrio Viejo, which translates as Old Neighbourhood.
The band have just finished recording a new album and have plenty of gigs lined up.
But Osvaldo insists his ambitions are to just play, and hopefully people will like their blues-based Latino tunes as much as the band enjoy performing them.
There is no pressure. Zero.
Unlike for another Barcelona-based ex-pat from Argentina, Leo Messi - a close personal friend who recently posed with Osvaldo for a snap as a fan, holding up a Barrio Viejo disc.
They had very different careers. Messi has only ever played for Barcelona, Osvaldo played for 11 clubs in 12 years.
Messi earns vast amounts of money while Osvaldo is happy now to play for pleasure and a few free drinks.
Messi is under huge pressure for his every touch to be pure genius, and to win everything.
Messi's lack of a World Cup winners' medal, for some, relegates him from history's top table - there is no space for him yet alongside Pele and Maradona.
"Leo is a lovely, lovely guy. He doesn't have to win the World Cup to be the best in the world - he IS the best in the world. The best in history? I don't like to make comparisons.
"But I think Maradona is the best ever. Diego is Diego for us. It's not just for the football. He's a rock star, he's crazy. I love him."
And with that, Dani Osvaldo lets out another raucous burst of laughter and sits in front of the mic.
Once it had been thousands of blokes in football shirts singing down at him from the stands, now it's just a row of heavenly females ... and Dani does the singing.
THE SUN: Adrian Addison in Barcelona, 6 Sep 2018
