‘Make sure there’s a sneaker room’: Finding homes for Premier League footballers
When Cristiano Ronaldo made his return to Manchester United in 2021 he faced a conundrum: having sold the £4million ($5.2m) mansion he previously owned in the north west, where would he, girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez and their children live?
They eventually settled on a £3million property in Cheshire, notable not only for its swimming pool, cinema and garage big enough for four cars, but for its owner: former United striker, Andrew Cole.
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A decade earlier, Ronaldo had been the one doing the letting. After swapping Manchester for Madrid in 2009, his five-bedroom house in the exclusive Cheshire village of Alderley Edge (one of three areas, alongside Prestbury and Wilmslow, which make up Cheshire’s “Golden Triangle,” where many of the area’s finest properties can be found), complete with indoor swimming pool, steam room, jacuzzi, gym and wine area was rented out to then-Manchester City winger Adam Johnson.
It’s not just players. After replacing Brendan Rodgers as Liverpool manager in 2015, Jurgen Klopp ended up renting his predecessor’s house in Formby. And when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer returned to Manchester as caretaker (and then permanent) manager in 2018, he was unable to move back into his former Cheshire home because of a tenant in place by the name of Virgil van Dijk.
Elsewhere on The Athletic…
Player to landlord has become an increasingly common career path in recent years, according to Andy Pearce, owner of a lettings agency and the man who, for more than 20 years, has been the go-to individual for footballers looking for somewhere to live in the Midlands.
“Players all seem to like the same type of property” he explains. “So if one player bought a house, similar players would buy it or rent it off them if they
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