Khabib Nurmagomedov is an avid football fan and has spoken about taking up the sport too
Khabib Nurmagomedov loves football and has been attending a lot of matches in recent months.
He watched Paris Saint-Germain destroy Barcelona in the Champions League 4-1 and even got a couple of jerseys from two top stars.
Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick for Paris in that match while Keylor Navas is the keeper for the French team.
However, Khabib’s love for football isn’t just on watching the sport, he plays it too. The retired UFC star has featured in several charity matches and even has a great goal or two in him.
The UFC Lightweight recently sent shock waves around the world when he suggested that he wanted to play football professionally.
He even spoke to the UEFA chief and PSG officials about a possible move. This is akin to Michael Jordan retiring from basketball and then trying his hand at baseball.
That didn’t work out so well for MJ and well, Daniel Cormier wasn’t sure about Khabib trying his time out in football (soccer) too.
DC and Khabib are close friends and have spoken a lot to each other. Cormier was on his YouTube show with Ariel Helwani and was asked about Khabib taking up soccer.
However, the former UFC Heavyweight champion didn’t think Khabib could do well in the sport:
“I have never seen him play soccer but this whole soccer thing, I don’t understand what is going on there.
“I told him, ‘You can’t play soccer, dude, are you good at soccer?’
“But they are taking it seriously, they are always playing, I don’t understand what is happening.”
Helwani highlighted that this was similar to Jordan’s move away from the Chicago Bulls and Cormier wasn’t having any of it.
“So you are about to tell me that Khabib’s about to play professional soccer.
“How would I know? I haven’t talked to Khabib in a while. This dude is really going to play professional soccer?”
Helwani claimed that Khabib was interested in it and how he was a fan. However, the pair brought up the basketball clips of Khabib playing.
This was a different kind of basketball though. Dagestani ball barely had any dribbling and Cormier brought up how he was tackled while playing the game early on.
Khabib is one of the greatest MMA stars of all-time but it is to be seen if he plays professional football.
The Russian can get a try out at many top clubs because of his stature but getting into the starting XI would be a different ask.
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