RYAN MIGHTY
I’m a Premier League cult hero whose career spanned ten clubs but now I’m trying to make my fortune in crypto
Winger played in the top flight in SIX countries but never quite lived up to his early promise
RYAN BABEL thrilled and frustrated fans in equal measure in a maverick football career that took in TEN clubs and a World Cup final
Now the former Liverpool, Fulham and Ajax winger is trying to make it big again…in cryptocurrency.
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Babel has launched an Instragram account offering advice and information about investing in the controversial world of crypto finance.
The Dutchman, 37, has time on his hands after leaving his final club, Turkish second-tier outfit Eyupspor, last year.
And Babel claims that the expensive watch on his wrist was paid for through crypto investments.
In a video on his main instagram account, @ryanbabel, the ex-Holland international is shown smoking a cigar and collecting the expensive timepiece from a London jeweller.
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Babel commented on the post, “Crypto bought me this watch”, and gave a link to @rbthecrypto.
There, followers can find a range of posts and videos, with the man himself giving his tips and insights..
In a recent item, Babel warns: “2024 won’t be as straightforward as most of you crypto geniuses think.”
But so far his words of wisdom on the financial world have attracted just over 2,000 followers - compared to the 2.1m who follow his original Instagram.
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Babel knows as well as anyone that sometimes you are up, and sometimes you are down.
After making his Ajax debut at the age of just 17, he joined Liverpool in 2007 for £11.5m as one of the hottest young talents in world football.
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Babel earned cult status with Reds fans, both on and off the field.
After scoring in the quarter final and semi final of the 2007/8 Champions League, arguably his greatest moment in a Liverpool shirt came when he grabbed the winner in a 2-1 win over Manchester United at Anfield in September 2008.
The mercurial winger had his ups and downs with Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez and never consistently lived up to his potential. He went to the 2010 World Cup with Holland, but did not play a single minute in the tournament in South Africa, where the Oranje lost 1-0 to Spain in the final.
But Babel delighted Liverpool fans again in January 2011 when he photoshopped the head of referee Howard Webb - now the PGMOL chief - on to a United shirt in a Twitter post after the Reds had lost 1-0 to their rivals in the FA Cup.
The FA fined him £10,000 and before the end of the month he left Anfield to join German side TSG Hoffenheim.
Over the following decade, Babel played for a further seven clubs as well as returning twice to Ajax, where he won a second Dutch title in 2014.
As well as short stays in the United Arab Emirates and La Liga, he enjoyed four separate spells in Turkey, winning a top-flight crown with Besiktas in 2017.
That was the year Babel returned to the Dutch squad after an absence of six years and he eventually racked up 69 caps and 10 goals.
The winger pitched up at Fulham on a short-term deal in January 2019 but could not stop the Cottagers from making an immediate return to the Championship.
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After three years at Galatasaray, which included a spell on loan back at Ajax, he spent the final year of his career to date at Eyupspor, a club based in Istanbul.
Now his Instagram account describes him as an “entrepreneur”. But critics have a lot less kind ways of describing some of those involved in cryptocurrency.
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