MAIDENHEAD UNITED head to Coventry on Sunday with a model pro among their ranks — literally.
Full-back Remy Clerima spends half his time playing non-league football and the other half as a top international model.
The 27-year-old works for world famous brands such as adidas, Timberland and Macy’s.
Just this week he has been on a week-long photoshoot in South Africa for Marks & Spencer.
But the French poser will be trying to keep out shots of a different kind when he and his team-mates head to the Ricoh in the FA Cup first round.
Speaking from Cape Town, jet- setting Clerima said: “Football is my passion so I didn’t want to give it up because of modelling.
“I give 100 per cent in football, so when I play I don’t think about injuring my face or anything like that!
“It’s the same with my modelling. Sometimes they ask me to do some jumping or climbing and others say, ‘Be careful, you don’t want to get injured’ but I give 100 per cent to both jobs.
“It’s not been the best week for me to be away because it’s a really big game. I let my manager know a while ago before we got qualified but it’s not ideal.
“I’m trying to keep as fit as I can here by doing runs after shoots but you miss touching the ball.
most read in football
“All the team is feeling positive about the game. We have the quality to cause them some problems.”
Clerima used to work for Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch as “a topless guy in front of the store” before a friend encouraged him to give modelling a go.
The world’s top men’s model agency, Select Model Management, snapped him up four years ago and a life travelling the world followed — though he was adamant he would never give up football.
Clerima began his playing career in France with Lorient before a move to Histon, which eventually led to a switch to Braintree under Alan Devonshire — his current boss at Maidenhead — and then Danny Cowley.
Though, as Clerima explained, West Ham legend Devonshire took some convincing in the beginning.
The Parisian said: “A friend of mine introduced me to Devonshire as at the time Braintree were looking for a centre-back. The manager was like, ‘I don’t want to deal with a model, he’ll be scared to head it!’ But after he had a few centre-backs he didn’t like, he brought me in.
“And after one training session he signed me and I played the whole season at centre-back.
“Since then, he knows how I am and works around my modelling. He knows when I’m going to miss training due to a shoot — but I do my best to be here for every single game.
“Not every manager would accept it. Danny Cowley did when he was at Braintree, he managed to work around me. But it’s not easy to get a manager to work like that.”
You can understand why a manager would be put off when you hear Clerima’s schedule. In the last few weeks, he has been to Barcelona, Germany and New York before heading off to South Africa this week — and it is Mexico next week.
It means he often misses training and even some games, so team-mates could be forgiven for having their noses put out of joint if the Frenchman goes straight back into the team.
Yet Clerima added: “Luckily, I have good team-mates who understand what I’m doing and none of them complain that I’ve missed training but am still playing.
“They laugh about it. One of them said their wife was looking for suits online and who was wearing it — me!”
All eyes will be on Clerima and Maidenhead on Sunday to see if they can cause an upset, including high-flying pals in the modelling world.
He added: “I’ve been talking about this game the whole week and everybody in the modelling circuit has been saying they will follow it! Anything can happen in a one-off game.”
Leave a comment