Football’s next star. A series of seven episodes in which unknown English football players fought for a contract with Jose Mourinho’s Inter side in 2010.
The Sky One show was described by many (me) as the seven greatest hours of television history and introduced us to famous characters such as the self-proclaimed ‘next Thierry Henry’ Anthony O’Connor, the shooting machine Hicham Abdellah (#JusticeForHicham) and possible winner Ben Greenhalgh .
Greenhalgh never seemed like the obvious winner (let me not mention Hicham again), but host Jamie Redknapp fell in love. He would hype Greenhalgh so much that it was impossible not to believe him.
Greenhalgh became an international superstar when Mourinho liked the teenager and gave him a professional six-month contract with Inter just a few months before they won Serie A, Coppa Italia and the Champions League. Not so tiring.
The wing did not play at all that season (obviously), but he managed to get a place in the squad for the Champions League final. He even won a winning medal, only to lose it a few years later. It’s cool, not like it’s valuable or anything.
He may have lost a once in a lifetime inheritance, but he got a new one-year contract and a loan to the Italian third tier followed. The writing was on the wall there and despite a solid season with Calcio Como, Greenhalgh was released in 2012.
As for his next move, Greenhalgh knew his stock was high. He was obviously not a Hicham, but his name still carried some weight and spells with the development pages of Brighton and Birmingham followed before Greenhalgh made the decision to return to the non-league.
A return to Welling in 2012 followed for Greenhalgh who, despite a short time in Scotland, has spent the majority of his career kicking around in the English foreign league. It was just an 18-month spell with the best side on the planet at the time. Standard. Like Julien Faubert to Real Madrid multiplied by 1000.
It is safe to say that the Inter gig did not really work, and Greenhalgh admitted to SPORTbible that everything could have been different if he had not won the show because a potential move to Tottenham to be one of Harry Redknapp’s wheely offers was on the cards.
“I remember Jamie [Redknapp] told me after I won the show that he had his father on the phone about a potential deal, “he remembers.” If I had not won the show, he would have waited with a two-year contract. So far, I would have liked to have taken that option because I had been in England and played football where I wanted to be and it would have been easier to make more of a career at home as well.
Jamie Redknapp was a big fan of Marc Atkins / Getty Images
“But I could not say no to Inter. Being there for two years in the reserves definitely affected my chances of returning because I went off the radar. But being part of something at Inter and training with the team that won the Champions League and the treble during Mourinho is something I can not shake my head at today. “
These days, Greenhalgh is a bit of all things. The 28-year-old has played football outside the league, but he is also head of the academy at Dartford, and in 2015 he even became a professional on the golf scene.
He has spent a lot of time in front of the camera. Greenhalgh’s moonlight as a Cristiano Ronaldo body doubles and has done a lot of advertising for adidas as a “sick tekkerz guy”, and he even popped up on the ITV game show Tenable not so long ago.
I think this is a detour but Ben Greenhalgh – winner of Football’s Next Star to get a contract in Inter Milan, and also Cristiano Ronaldo’s body double – is on Tenable on ITV 1 rn pic.twitter.com/hnOTn9BtDt
– Sean Walsh (@SeanDZWalsh) March 26, 2019
Greenhalgh is clear about the future. He can still continue as a football player, but his main goal now is to become the next star of the management. Probably would not see that show. (That’s a lie yes I would).
He is currently working on his coaching brands, Greenhalgh hopes to follow in Mourinho’s footsteps and make a real name for himself in the excavation.
Wondering what Hicham has up to today …
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