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Ramon Calliste was just 15 years old when he began drawing comparisons to Ryan Giggs. Brought to Manchester United by Sir Alex Ferguson, he trained alongside the likes of David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, and Cristiano Ronaldo, with big things expected of the Cardiff-born prodigy - who was even named among the top 100 young players in world football just a year after joining the club's famed academy. He went on to win the FA Youth Cup, and for a short moment, the world was his oyster as he looked poised to usher in the next great Welsh generation - something the land of castles and dragons has long struggled to produce consistently. But just to show how spectacularly Calliste’s story veered off course, riddle us this: where is he now? The chances of you knowing are slim, considering he never made a first-team appearance for the Red Devils before brief spells with Scunthorpe United and Cambridge City in a fleeting playing career. However, 25 years after first being tipped to become United’s next 13-time Premier League winner, he’s not doing too badly for himself at all in a career far removed from the pressures of Old Trafford. Ramon Calliste's Playing Career Post-Ryan Giggs Comparisons The funny thing about the transfer market is that even if a player fails to fully graduate from a big club’s academy - not least Carrington, one of the richest talent factories around - they can still land some decent moves elsewhere, sometimes on reputation alone. In Calliste’s case, his release from United in 2005 saw him make the rarely made journey across enemy lines to Anfield and Liverpool. At just 19 years old, the young forward became the first player to move between the two clubs since April 1964, when Paul Chisnall made a £25,000 switch. Calliste went on to top the scoring charts for Liverpool’s reserve side during the 2005/06 campaign, having joined on a one-year deal. However, once again, a frustrated Calliste couldn’t quite force the door open to the senior team. After a year in the reserves, he joined Scunthorpe in 2006 for a shot at first-team football — but disaster struck within weeks, as he suffered a serious pre-season injury, dislocating his ankle, cracking a bone, and severely damaging ligaments. Despite several operations and early hopes of returning within six months, the horror injury left him with a limp that lasted three years - a cruel reminder of football’s fine margins. Carrying that limp, Calliste tried to bounce back, taking trials with Cambridge City, West London Saracens, Shrewsbury, Newport, Lincoln, Wycombe, and even Bulgarian side Levski Sofia. But eventually, reality hit home, and in 2009, he decided to hang up his boots for good. He Now Earns £15 million a Year in Totally Different Job Considering eight former England internationals have gone bankrupt since retiring from football, it can be pretty easy to get swept up in the struggles of leaving behind a passion that runs so deep. This can be especially true for those like Calliste, who will have felt they had so much more to give before cruelly being denied a star-studded career. Resilience has prevailed, however, and he now earns a living much shinier than the one he would have expected if he tried to prolong his playing days, telling The Sun in 2023 that he saw his career-ending injury as a blessing in the end: "I’m very grateful for my change of direction, although it was tough one to accept at the time". The Welshman more than landed on his feet as he launched watch company Global Watches in 2013, selling high-end timepieces including Rolex, Audemars Piguet and Hublot, from anywhere between £50,000 and £250,000. The luxury business has pulled in up to £15m per year, which is £12 million more than what the average Premier League player makes, with footballers and other celebrities among its clientele. "Obviously, once I realised that football wasn't going to be for me, I had to find something that I used to wake up and enjoy," he explained, as per the Mirror. "I saw room for myself in the market. Some say it’s over-saturated. There’s a lot of watch dealers out there now, but I don’t really see it as competition personally. If anyone is doing something good, there’s enough out there for everyone." "It's a very lucrative market. I think people are enjoying their money nowadays a bit more than they used to, because interest rates in banks - if you've got money sitting in the bank, I don't think you get much back for it nowadays. The values of watches helped. When I first started getting involved, the same watches back then are now treble value." In December 2021, he opened an exclusive boutique in the heart of Mayfair, London, where he showcased a refined collection of luxury watches, Hermes handbags, and fine jewellery for both men and women. As recently as 2023, he was balancing life with his family between London and Dubai - proof that the end of his football career wasn’t the end of his journey, but merely a stop along the way.
