This summer’s sporting schedule is jam packed with intriguing competitions including the Women’s World Cup, the Under-21 European Championship, both of which you can listen to LIVE on talkSPORT.
However, the summer also sees the return of hugely popular reality TV show Love Island, with the current series starring Tyson Fury’s younger brother, Tommy, who is also a professional boxer.
For those of you not familiar with Love Island, the basic premise of the show sees a group of sexy singles go to a villa in Spain, where they have to ‘couple up’ with each other in order to stay in the game.
The British public votes for the couple they believe to be the most ‘genuine’ and a winning couple is crowned at the end of the two-month process.
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If Love Island 2019 stars were Premier League clubs
Meanwhile, Geordie Shore’s Aaron Chalmers actually used his career ‘getting mortal’ on the telly to give him a platform towards pursuing his dreams of becoming an MMA fighter.
Chalmers is in action at Bellator London tonight, where he will fight Fred Freeman at the SSE Arena at Wembley, following his defeat to American Corey Browning in February.
And this got us thinking at talkSPORT.com about the many other reality stars who, if they chose a different path in life, could have become very competent sports men/women.
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Mike Thalassitis – Love Island (Football)
Love Island’s favourite wind-up merchant Mike Thalassitis played football professionally once upon a time.
Mike signed a professional contract with League One at the time Stevenage in May 2011 and even represented Cyprus at youth level.
View this post on InstagramScoring the winner against Serbia last night 2-1 #Cyprus #Serbia #euroqualifiers2013 #international #u21s
However, after countless loan spells at non-league clubs, Mike chose to turn his back on football and appeared on Love Island in 2017.
After Love Island, he appeared on E4’s Celebs Go Dating but in March 2019 Mike’s life came to a tragic end after he took his own life near his home in Edmonton, London.
Jamie Laing – Made in Chelsea (Rugby)
It’s not clear how close Jamie Laing was to becoming a rugby player but one of the characters in Made in Chelsea made a passing comment in one episode that he captained England at Under-15 level.
However, Jamie’s love of partying took hold and a potential career never materialised but he now has his own business and is reportedly heir to the McVities Biscuits fortune, so every cloud and all that.
He did get to fulfil a lifelong dream of playing at the home of English rugby Twickenham in a Rugby Aid for Heroes charity match in September 2015 – although the game saw Jamie hospitalised after being brutally tackled by former New Zealand international Brad Thorn. Ouch.
Ashley Cain – Ex on the Beach (Football)
‘Kane scores for England’ is something we’ve heard many times but perhaps in some other universe out there it’s actually Ashley CAIN who’s going to help football come home one day.
The Ex on the Beach favourite, who refers to himself as ‘BEAST’ on his Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter accounts, signed as a pro at Coventry City in 2008 before having loan spells at Oxford United and Luton Town.
He then moved to Mansfield before playing at a number of non-league clubs but Cain found his true calling in life when he went on Ex on the Beach and built up his name off the back of that.
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Cain also ‘worked’ at a hotel as part of an E4 competition show called Five Star Hotel, going up against other reality stars including Joey Essex for a prize to see who was the best at the day-to-day running of a hotel. The show wasn’t five-star.
Laura Crane – Love Island (Surfing)
Love Island beauty Laura Crane had an exciting career as a surfer back in the day, however, since being on last year’s series of the ITV show her career on the waves has taken a back seat despite competing at a national level through most of her teenage years.
Her modelling career has really soared since Love Island but all that nearly came crashing down when it was revealed in November 2018 that Laura was rushed to A&E after contracting sepsis, spending ten days in hospital.
View this post on Instagram@11_degreeswomen
Gary ‘Gaz’ Beadle – Geordie Shore (Football)
Things could have been much different for Geordie Shore’s favourite parsnip with Gary, or ‘Gaz’ as he’s better known, being a part of Newcastle United’s academy as a youngster.
In an interview with MTV in 2016, Gaz revealed he was invited to join the Magpies aged 14 and played his first game against Newcastle’s rivals Sunderland.
It’s not clear why Gaz never made it as a footballer but it’s fair to say he’s scored plenty of ‘worldies’ in his time – claiming to have bedded over 1,000 women in his life.
Max Morley – Love Island (Cricket)
Who needs the County Championship or even The Ashes? Not Max Morley that’s for sure as he has a 2015 Love Island winner’s medal to boast instead.
Before Love Island, Max was coming through the ranks at Durham County Cricket Club but only made one appearance for the senior squad in a Twenty20 match in 2013.
Thankfully, Max landed on his feet and got on Love Island and later appeared on series 7 of Ex on the Beach in 2017 in what can only be described as one of the most poisonous pieces of TV ever! No one on that show came out good.
Mark Wright – The Only Way Is Essex (Football)
Former TOWIE star Mark Wright has somewhat outgrown his status as a reality star having pursued a number of projects in journalism, children’s TV presenting and a bit of acting.
However, Mark, not to be confused with the ex-Southampton, Derby and Liverpool defender, was not a bad footballer in his youth having signed a professional contract with Southend in 2005.
He also played for Grays Athletic and Crawley Town but his heart wasn’t in it and he eventually moved into nightclub promoting full-time before ITV2 came calling regarding a new project following the lives of young Essex folk.
Mark’s younger brother Josh has made it as a professional footballer and currently plays for Leyton Orient.
Joel Corry – Geordie Shore (Body-builder)
Given it’s in the culture for male reality stars to have that million dollar body, of course we were going to find a body-builder!
However, Joel Corry’s status as a reality star can be questioned as he only made a few appearances on Geordie Shore through being in a relationship with one of the show’s contestants, Sophie Kasei.
We shouldn’t knock Joel, who also describes himself as a DJ and producer, as he has competed in national body-building competitions.
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He won the Overall Men’s Fitness title at one of Britain’s biggest contests, the Miami Pro, in his very first competition in 2015.
Aaron Chalmers (Reality star turned MMA fighter)
Former Geordie Shore star Aaron Chalmers is unique in the sense that he used his career in reality TV to helped him pursue his dreams of being a Mixed Martial Arts fighter.
Chalmers has come a long way too, competing in the Bellator division, especially when you consider his previous job was to get blind drunk in front of the TV cameras.
He boasts a record of four wins and one defeat.
Jamie O’Hara and Jermaine Pennant (Footballers turned reality stars)
Some people go the other way and have football careers that never quite take off and end up becoming reality stars.
Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara was a promising youngster but never fulfilled his potential while Jermaine Pennant played for Arsenal and Liverpool.
Both then secured their dream move… to the Big Brother house – O’Hara going in in 2017, while Pennant arrived last year.
The fame didn’t stop there though with O’Hara appearing on MTV’s Just Tattoo of Us and experimental ITV show Celebrity Showmance which frankly should never see the light of day again.
Meanwhile, Pennant appeared on a celebrity special of The Jeremy Kyle Show with glamour model wife Alice Goodwin, eleven years on from starting in the Champions League final with Liverpool. How times change.
The post Reality TV stars who ditched promising careers in sport as Geordie Shore’s Aaron Chalmers prepares for fight at Bellator London appeared first on Kenya Latest.
