A former Premier League star and African international has now been certified as a professional in another sport.
The Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) has confirmed that former Nigeria striker Peter Odemwingie has now completed his badges as a professional golfer.
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Odemwingie retired from football in January 2019, ending a 20-year career that saw him represent the likes of Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League.
Speaking to the PGA on their official website, the 42-year-old said: "I started playing just at the end of my West Brom days because a few of the boys played, and I could see the excitement they had for it.
"They would go and play on a Tuesday after training, and they'd have their golf gear and be talking about it, but I couldn't understand it because the golf vocabulary is so different to anything else.
"Then, on one of the pre-season training trips with West Brom, [manager] Roy Hodgson took us to a golf resort and people were doing putting and playing full rounds on days off, so I was just passing by the range, and I thought I'd try and hit some balls.
"I was wearing slippers, but I hit a few, and I loved the sound and watching the ball fly. It was downhill so it carried further. I thought, 'OK, there's something in this'."
Born in Tashkent – now the capital of Uzbekistan - when it was part of the Soviet Union, Odemwingie moved to Nigeria to live with his father at the age of two.
The PGA confirms that he returned to Russia to live his mother, who hails from the country, and complete his secondary school education.
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He would later begin his professional career at Akademia CSKA, paving the way for a career spanning over two decades at clubs in Nigeria, Belgium, France, England, and Indonesia.
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