From Cristiano Ronaldo teammate to milkman: The life of Richard Eckersley

Richard Eckersley has had a dramatic turn of fortune in recent years. The 32-year-old former Manchester United midfielder has gone from playing with Cristiano Ronaldo to now being a milk seller. Eckersley last played professional football in 2015, when he turned out for Oldham Athletic in League One. After that, he decided to give up his footballing career to start an oat-milk business.

Richard Eckersley Milk Company

According to the former United midfielder, he took the leap of faith when he saw that he and his family had about 6-12 months worth of money saved. Eckersley said: "Oldham had no money or hope, I came back from a marriage, we had a newborn and I told my wife I wanted to quit football."

"It's a relief, I have enough money to last six months or a year. I've been thinking about Cristiano Ronaldo coming back to United, the last time he was there I was there, I trained with him, and now I'm a milkman and I sell oat milk."

Richard Eckersley future for his Milk Company

Eckersley also shared more about his current life and his aspirations for the future: "We have our own place to live, our gardens and we grow our own food. This is a city without roads, a community of about 40 people with everything vegetarian and 100 percent organic.

"We produce 25,000 liters of milk per month in glass bottles, everything is reusable and it's a circular business model, we have 22 employees and we want to be the biggest milk distributor in the UK in the next five years."