Dominic Thiem Trades Tennis Racket for Football Boots in Austrian Amateur League
Gulf News reports that former world No.
3 Dominic Thiem has traded his racket for boots, signing with Badener AC — an amateur football club scrapping through Austria's eighth tier. The 2020 US Open champion walked away from tennis at 30, a career cut short by wrist damage that ate his top-end power. At 32, he's not chasing silverware. He's chasing the game he never really left.
The swap from racket to boots
This isn't a celebrity cameo. Thiem was already pulling on a shirt for hometown side SC Lichtenwörth before Badener AC scooped him up. Eighth tier in Austria means real grass, real contact, real cold Tuesday nights under floodlights. No charity tournament, no walk-on handshake.
The wrist is the only question mark. His forehand — that massive, whipping left-hander's stroke — was built on wrist torque he can no longer load. Football is a lower-body game. If the joint holds, the aerobic base from fifteen years of elite court movement carries him past most amateurs in the division. The level's low enough that even if it doesn't, he won't embarrass himself. The man's not rebuilding. He's redirecting.
The ambassador's runway
As if stepping back into competition wasn't enough, Thiem's also been named an ambassador for the 2026 UEFA Super Cup — played August 12 at Red Bull Salzburg's stadium. His own line on the role: football has always been part of his life, whether playing, watching in the stadium, or cheering as a fan. He's not performing for the cameras. He's doubling down on a love that ran parallel to his pro career for two decades while the trophy haul piled up.
The verdict
Thiem finished with 348 ATP match wins and 17 titles, including that dramatic five-set US Open final over Alexander Zverev. Most athletes that decorated would lock the highlights reel and retire the sneakers to a glass case. Thiem is the opposite — picking tackles in front of a few hundred people and calling it joy.
That's the part worth tracking. Not the scoreline in division eight. The durability of a man who refuses to let his competitive engine idle. Some retired champions fade into commentary boxes and brand deals. Thiem chose mud and grass. You can read it as a hobby or a second wind — the answer lands the same either way: the man's still got fight in him, and he's spending it where he wants to spend it.
In markets and on the pitch, resistance levels decide how far momentum carries you before the next real test — Thiem cleared his biggest one when he retired healthy enough to start something new.
