The 28-year-old Liverpool defender is launching a new venture next to Croatia’s biggest party beach.
There is a growing number of football players who use their successful careers as athletes to tackle the other side of the business world – and many of them lately are taking the money they’ve earned playing the sport and investing it into real estate or new ventures. Because the career of a footballer usually ends by 35, it’s a rather smart idea for the athletes to set themselves up with something after their expiration date in football arrives.
While we’ve known that football greats including Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi are entrepreneurs and have had their hands in the hotel business for a long time, we learned today that Liverpool defender and Croatian representative Dejan Lovren would also follow closely in the footsteps of the La Liga stars.
Slobodna Dalmacija announced on May 21, 2018, that in the town of Novalja on the island of Pag, Lovren would open a small 4-star hotel, boasting 17 luxury suites near the famous Zrće beach.
Although there are no official numbers yet, it is rumored that Lovren invested somewhere near 3 million euro in the hotel, which is named the ‘Joel’, and has recently started an advertising campaign over social networks. Even though the hotel is set to open in the coming weeks, we don’t think the famous footballer will have any trouble turning on the ‘no vacancy’ sign this summer.
This is not Lovren’s first step in entrepreneurial waters, however, and in 2013, the footballer and his friend started their own fashion brand, Russell Brown. While we can’t predict the success of his latest venture, one thing is for certain – as far as football is concerned, the 28-year career is safe, for now.
Lovren has not only made Zlatko Dalić’s World Cup squad for Russia this summer, but the footballer’s club (Liverpool) will face Real Madrid in the Champions League final this Saturday, May 26th, in Kiev.
