Emile Heskey

Leicester City, Liverpool and England striker

A-League club: Newcastle Jets

Heskey’s arrival in 2012 coincided with a boom in the A-League.

He was part of a ‘big three’ marquee signings: Japanese star Shinji Ono and Italian legend Alessandro Del Piero.

In fact, Heskey played against Del Piero in his A-League debut in front of 36,000 fans in Sydney.

 

Heskey scored that day and he kept scoring for his new A-League outfit, who signed him to a marquee deal.

With his partner - now wife - Chantelle, they fitted in well to life in the Surfside town north of Sydney.

The big forward scored 10 times in 42 A-League matches, but his most telling contribution was on the younger players.

He won 62 caps for England between 1999 and 2010. On Merseyside, he won six trophies during a four-year stint. 

And was Liverpool’s record signing when he moved after six years from his hometown club Leicester City for £11 million in 2000. 

All this experience was vital in helping youngsters such as Connor Chapman and Craig Goodwin develop over his two-year stint in the Hunter.

Heskey returned to England and played briefly with Bolton.

The now 41-year-old retired in 2016 and worked as a TV and media pundit. Sounds a familar path... that was until an unusual career move was announced late last year. 

The Canadian independent oil exploration and production company GenOil appointed Heskey as Senior Vice President for the Caribbean Region. 

That's right! He's now in oil and gas! 

The former Jets striker is quoted in a release on the company's site: “I am excited to join the company and to make introductions for Genoil Inc. in the Caribbean market as the company expands our footprint globally.

"Our extensive international relationships and cutting edge GHU technology has the potential to capture the market among heavy oil producers around the world.

"The vision of the company is to build a strong environmentally focused desulfurization and heavy oil business that is based on our unique technology.

"Genoil’s state-of-the-art technology, combined with our very experienced board of directors and management team, give me the confidence that the GHU technology will be successfully commercialized and implemented around the world.”

Sounds like Heskey's made a smooth transition into the corporate world.