Many soccer players come and go unnoticed, regardless of the club they played for. Some may make their way to the worldâs top teams but for different reasons, not all of them find the room to succeed. Injuries can often stand in their way.
Ricardo Prasel used to be the third-choice goalkeeper at Chelsea but a hip injury forced him to retire early in his career. Born in Brazil on June 2, 1990 Prasel joined the Premier League outfitin 2009 but he quit soccer three years later to return home, where he would not only start college but alsoto practice jiu-jitsu.
Prasel would later begin a career in mixed martial artsand went on to fight around the world. Recently, the Brazilian defeated Michal Kita in his first apperance at the renowned MMA organization KSW. Back in the day, he used to train with the likes of Petr Cech and Didier Drogba.
Ricardo Prasel, from Chelseato the octagon
Even though he didnât play a single official game for Chelseaâs senior team, Praselwas thethirdgoalkeeper behind Petr Cech and Hilario. After training, he would stayto defend free kicks fromDidier Drogba and Michael Ballack.
Didier Drogba (left) and Ricardo Prasel. (Via The Sun)
It was during a loan spell at Belgian club RFC Liege that he suffered the career-ending injury, which eventually led him to begin a new career at MMA. Prasel has a record of 12-3 and seems to be happy with the way things turned out.
In an interview with ESPN in 2019, Prasel suggested that he would not change the way things have gone as heâs happy with his MMA career.âMy time in soccer was very good, but I would not trade that for my fight career,â Prasel said, as quoted by The Sun.
