Former Arsenal academy star Henri Lansbury is one of a number of high-profile football stars taking part in the inaugural Baller League UK.
Lansbury, who came through the youth ranks at Hale End, made a handful of appearances for the Gunners before embarking on loan stints at Scunthorpe, Watford, Norwich, and West Ham. He later joined Nottingham Forest in 2012, where he became a mainstay, racking up 150 appearances over four and a half years.
Following his time at Forest, Lansbury played for Aston Villa, Bristol City, and Luton Town, until hanging up his boots in 2021 at the age of 32 to pursue an unexpected career path - gardening.
The ex-midfielder, now dubbed 'The Lawn Lad', has introduced a product named Grass Gains One Shot Wonder Liquid Fertiliser, aimed at enhancing lawn health.
Lansbury delved into the reasons behind his green-fingered venture during a talkSPORT interview in July 2023, citing the initial lockdown period as a turning point.
"It came about during the first [Covid] lockdown when I was stuck at home and got into gardening," he shared.
"I started to spray my weeds with toxic stuff and put toxic fertiliser down and my missus wasn't too happy about the kids running on the grass straight after."
"I was trying to usher them off and she said, 'Why can't they just make an organic fertiliser?' I put my head together with my mate and me and the boys have cracked on and taken it to another level."
His enterprise could see a return to football roots as well. "We're going in the right direction, a few local clubs have asked for it and we've put it down on their pitches as well," he mentioned, inspired by a community spirit.
"I want to give back to the local clubs really, I want them to have a nice pitch to play on, there's nothing better than a kid running on a pitch with stripes on it and that's what it does, it helps stripe it off."
Lansbury will pull on his boots as one of 144 players participating in the inaugural Baller League UK, with games taking place at Copper Box Arena in London every Monday night.
The former Arsenal star will represent VZN FC by influencer Tobi Brown, who is part of the Sidemen group.
12 teams will compete to become the Baller League champion, with some huge names involved in the competition, including former Chelsea star John Terry, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer.
Former Gunners striker Ian Wright will also be managing one of the teams in the league, joint-manager alongside Arsenal and Lioness star Chloe Kelly.
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Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus with the Arsenal Therapy Dog Win during the Arsenal Men's team group shoot at London Colney on September 18, 2023
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