Athletes are in the public spotlight – and sometimes outside of their actual profession.
Now a former FC Bayern soccer player drew attention to himself on a TV show. Goalkeeper Pepe Reina, now under contract with Lazio Rome, was identified in the Spanish version of “The Masked Singer” after an entertaining performance.
In the program, celebrities initially hide behind a mask, performing dance and singing interludes.
SPORT1 shows other famous athletes who participated in “The Masked Singer”.
Footballer at “The Masked Singer”
From a footballing point of view, the list of participants in the musical entertainment show has so far been fairly manageable.
In addition to goalkeeper Reina, another keeper, but in the Austrian version of the show, took the microphone.
Robert Almer, who should be known especially to the fans of Hannover 96 from the 2014/15 season, disguised himself as a wobbly dachshund. With success: Nobody could correctly identify Almer after his performance of “Was du Liebe nennst” von Bause.
“The last time I sang was over 20 years ago – and in between only for the anthem at international matches,” said the ex-goalkeeper afterwards Sports buzzer quoted.
Teddy Sheringham completes the “soccer list”. The former Manchester United striker, who also made 51 caps for the Three Lions, disguised himself as … Baum for the British version of “The Masked Singer”. After four of a total of eight episodes, however, it was over for Sheringham.
NFL greats try their hand at US television
Athletes appeared much more frequently in the US offshoot of the show.
The four-time Super Bowl champion Rob Gronkowski took advantage of the end of his career and disguised himself as a white tiger for his vocal interludes.
After his performance of “I’m too sexy” by Right Said Fred, however, the tight end and team-mate of megastar Tom Brady at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was discovered because his dance moves were all too familiar to both the jury and some NFL teammates occurred.
Another well-known face from the NFL “hid” himself as the “hippopotamus”: Antonio Brown, also the football great of the Bucs, was on stage in the very first edition of the US version.
For the wide receiver, which is always good for a scandal, participation was anything but successful – Brown had to pack his bags right in the first episode.
Athletes also smuggled their way into the TV show from the NBA. For example, Victor Oladipo, today with Miami Heat, tried his hand at the second edition of “The Masked Singer” – and even made it to the semi-finals.
Hawk surprises as an elephant
Skateboard legend Tony Hawk also caused astonished faces in the audience and the jury. It is well known that the 51-year-old has a lot of athletic skills – but musically, too, things went quite well for the eleven-time world champion disguised as an elephant.
Reaching top performance on the board too – Chloe Kim can do that too. The snowboard Olympic champion from Pyeongchang made it to the semi-finals of the music show as a “jellyfish”.
From a German point of view, by the way, no athlete has shone on “The Masked Singer”.
Also Unions Max Kruse among the singers
For this, Union Berlin’s Max Kruse tried a different format as a singer: The attacker, at that time in the service of Fenerbahce Istanbul, let himself be carried away in early 2020 to appear in the Turkish edition of “The Voice”.
There he performed the classic “Sway” by Dean Martin with platinum blonde hair and a chic suit.
