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Ikoli Victor
DOHA
Retired French football star and former Manchester United player Louis Saha isn't taking his retirement lightly while speaking at the World Stadium Congress in Doha on Tuesday. The owner of a social network group Axis Stars introduced his project that helps professional athletes manage their financial futures and avoid conmen.
The Axis Stars has been assisting elite professional athletes and sports stars, coaches and agents and it has already got famous faces likes Didier Drogba, Gaizka Mendieta, Phil Neville, Florent Malouda, Rio Ferdinard, Garry Neville, Gael Mofils, Samuel Eto'o, William Gallas and numerous NBA players on its board.
The social network platform offers insurance, banking, lifestyle, physical therapists, image rights, real estate, marketing & PR, sponsorship and other career-related tips to athletes so that they can keep an eye on their club, sponsorship, endorsement and insurance.
Saha said the new platform was designed to help sports stars manage their careers better even after retirement."We have managed to bring the best services through our social network platform. We have an independent ethical committee that helps monitor opportunities before we undertake any venture."
Saha is currently looking for business collaborations and sponsorship in Qatar to back the project."I have used a lot of my savings for this business," he said."Now I am looking for investors to support the project. Before, everyone came to me with the proposition and now I am the salesman.
"I would have loved to be able to master my job better when I was playing but now I've retired and I still have a huge role to play sharing my experience with young players. I wish I had a platform like this when I was a player. It would have helped me manage my career and plan for the future a lot better.
"This was why the Axis Stars was designed not only to help active professional players and athletes but also those in their post-career. The aim is to help drastically reduce the terrifying statistics, which show that around 50 percent of sports professionals go bankrupt after retirement. I am proud with what I'm doing now in the last two years than what have done in the last 15 years on the field."
Saha is working with Patrice Arnera and Manchester United's former marketing man Mike Farnan on the project. He said in addition to football stars, the platform has attracted former NBA players Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw, and has gained interest from those in the boxing and motorsport world.
"We want to put them in touch with the right connection once they are under the spotlight, so once they come out of the spotlight they remain in the light with opportunities ahead of them,"Patrice said.
"Those opportunities can be in sports like punditry, ambassadorship for previous clubs, emerging competitions, knowledge and access to these people is often sought but not always found. So we tend connect the dot and the key thing for us is whatever we connect our members with, there's due diligence involved," Patrice added.
Saha, 36, who played for Fulham, Everton, and Manchester United, launched the business in September last year. He retired from football in 2013 after being plagued by injuries.
