Maxi Lopez has played for Barcelona and Milan, shared the dressing room with champions like Ronaldinho and spent twenty years in professional football. Today, however, there are people who stop him on the street without knowing anything about his career as a footballer: they know him from MasterChef. "Today I am a chef. Nobody knows me as a footballer anymore," says the former striker in an interview for the program "Dimmi la verità".
The change is particularly noticeable among the younger generation, who have discovered him on television and not through his matches or goals. When asked if he has “ever played football”, he answers ironically: “I was an actor”. A joke that explains better than any presentation the transformation of his public image: his past as a footballer has not disappeared, but for a part of the young public it has never existed; even the rumors about his ex-wife Wanda Nara and ex-teammate Mauro Icardi have remained behind the scenes. In essence, participating in MasterChef has not simply added an activity to his life: it has enabled him to reach people who had no reason to follow him when he was playing football. This is the most interesting change in his new popularity beyond the boundaries of football.
From MasterChef on television: "It opened my mind"
The turning point came with MasterChef Celebrity. The former footballer was not a very experienced chef, but he knew how to prepare well and did so for his children. However, there he took a qualitative step. And when he says "it opened my mind", he does so to clarify that this experience led him to a dimension that he had not known until then: it enabled him to turn that need into passion and discover an environment far from the world of football. "Before, I knew four or five sauces, maximum. Today, on the contrary, I have reached twenty, even twenty-five. And I cook very well".
This program took him to another level, transforming him into a highly regarded television personality. Telefe hired Maxi Lopez to commentate on the World Cup matches, in which Argentina reached the final against Spain. Together with Grego Rossello and Turco Husain, he became the presenter of another format between sports and entertainment. Football has remained part of his identity, but it is no longer the only context in which he can be recognized.
New life story: "I'm rediscovering myself"
Maxi Lopez is no longer just Wanda Nara's ex-partner. "I'm rediscovering myself" is the expression that best describes this new phase of his life. "Before, I reached out to the football audience, to sports fans; today I reach out to many other people, through the things that make me happy." He divides his time between cooking, television and business.
The paradox lies precisely here: for a generation of fans, the former striker is the former Barcelona and Milan player; for some of the young people who meet him today, he is simply the chef they saw on television. And it seems that he has found a way to enjoy both identities.
