Police detective got recognised as former Coventry City star while interviewing suspect

The footballer played for clubs including Barnsley, Wigan, Portsmouth and Coventry City

A police detective was recognised as being a former Coventry City footballer during an interview with a suspect.

While most retired footballers go on to have related careers – often in coaching, commentating or punditry – this one particular sports star ended up joining the police instead.

Dutch centre back Arjan de Zeeuw, now 54, first joined Barnsley back in 1995, before stepping up to join Wigan Athletic in 1999.

When his contract came to an end in 2002, he moved on to Portsmouth, before returning to Wigan in 2005 and having a brief stint at Cov City.

De Zeeuw had 146 Premier League appearances by the time he retired.

But once he had officially hung up his boots, de Zeeuw chose a rather unusual career path for a Premier League footballer.

He ended up joining the police as a detective.

Naturally, being such a public figure, de Zeeuw was recognised, revealing that he was once spotted while actually interviewing a suspect.

“I was once recognised at work,” he told the Guardian.

“We were interviewing a suspect about numerous burglaries and the guy said: ‘I know you. You used to be that footballer who played in England!’ So we chatted about football and then carried on discussing the crime.”

Speaking on Emerson Boyce’s podcast in 2020, it seems de Zeeuw is still happy with his career change, explaining: “I still work with the Dutch police force, believe it not as an inspector, or detective as you call it.

“I realised that I loved playing football so much that I didn’t not want to play it and be on the side of the pitch all the time.

“I realised I didn’t want to be on the football pitch not playing football, so I thought no, I’m not going to do all the badges and go into management, I’m just going to get completely out of football altogether.”

He continued: “Having a medical degree, my first idea was to become a doctor, but at the time the Dutch police were looking for people with higher education to do a fast-track course into the police force.

“It sounded a little bit like a boys’ dream – being in fast cars and having a gun and all that stuff and I realised it was still going to take me a long time to become a doctor, whereas it was a much quicker route into the police force.

“Being a footballer, obviously you have the good lifestyle and are a bit of a figure in the community because you play for the local team and all that.

“Being a policeman, you see the other side of society. It’s interesting, I’ll tell you that – and I do have a fast car and I do have a gun.”