NBC on Yahoo SportsMad Dash: Arsenal player's energy company could be worth billions
Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini has put together a lucrative career on the pitch, but it turns out his real fortune may come from a company he owns. The former AC Milan man co-founded GF Biochemicals, an alternative energy company that produces levulinic acid, while he was in Italy with his friend Pasquale Granata with a mission to combat climate change and global warming. He revealed the details to The Sun.
“For seven years I haven’t mentioned it to anyone,” Flamini said. “When I moved to Milan in 2008 I met Pasquale, who became a close friend and we always had in mind to do something together. I was always close to nature and concerned about environmental issues, climate change and global warming.”
Now Flamini says he is in prime position to capitalize on a $20 billion emerging market, and help the world a bit, too, in the process. GF Biochemicals says on its site that it's the "only company to produce levulinic acid at commercial scale directly from biomass" with the aim to replace petroleum-based products, and that it "expects substantial growth in the levulinic acid market coming years." If they're right, Flamini is in for an amazing raise from already impressive wages.
It doesn't sound like Cam Newton will stop his celebratory dances anytime soon. When asked on Wednesday what he thought of high school kids imitating him, this is what he said:
It takes me to a happy place. You know what I’m saying. Because I can remember … when I was in high school, I used to look up to guys that you know do things and I tried to mimic (it) and now they’re doing the things that I do. So it puts a lot of, not necessarily pressure, but you see people are looking at you whether you want them to or not. And when I see people doing the celebration that I do, it just makes me happy.
We've got no issue iwth that answer, and we'll always remind the critics that regardless of the sport, if you don't like the celebration, maybe should have stopped the player from scoring.
Here's hoping we can all have as much on our vacations as Hunter Pence appeared to have at Harry Potter World on Tuesday. We don't actually have much else to add (you can get that over at Big League Stew), but this is just what makes Pence one of the best athletes to follow on social media, and one of the most entertaining and fun dudes alive. Now we just need him to hook us up with those VIP passes he's got in the photos.
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The Yahoo Sports Mad Dash is a roundup of the morning's trending stories from across the sports landscape. Check it out every day to see what's buzzing.
