My name is Bond, James Bond—Great actor Sean Connery also excelled in sports

Films and sports have a close connection especially in the Hollywood. There have been several actors who were good sportsmen before they became actors. One example was Sean Connery who acted as the first James Bond. He was a bodybuilder and a football player before he became an immensely famous actor.
Connery was born in a family that was not very well off . So at an early age he dropped out of school to earn money for the family. His first job as a teenager was to deliver milk. After doing that for two years he joined the Royal Navy. He received training at the Naval Gunnery School as part of an anti-aircraft gun crew. He was then posted to the ship HMS Formidable. Unfortunately, he had to leave the Navy due to health issues.
But he was always interested in sports. One of the games that he loved was football. He played football for a team called Bonnyrigg Rose in Scotland. The club was based in the town of Bonnyrigg and was one of the oldest clubs in the region. It was formed in 1881.
While playing for this team, Connery’s skills caught the eye of some scouts. One of them was a scout employed by Sir Matt Busby the famous manager of Manchester United. Sir Matt Busby was well known for his penchant for recruiting promising young players and training them till they became extremely good. He had built Manchester United into one of the world’s best club teams at the time.
Sean Connery With Ronaldinho When Sir Matt Busby took a look at Connery’s game, he was impressed by his skills,  height and physique. He felt that Connery would be a capable defender or a good goal scoring forward in the game of football. So Connery was offered a contract by Manchester United. Such an offer would be a dream for any aspiring footballer. Any other player would have snapped up the chance.
Also Read Prankster Pataudi got everyone scared by staging his kidnap drama; some of his teammates were panic stricken But Connery refused the offer. “I really wanted to accept because I loved football,” recalled Connery many years later in an interview. “But I realised that a top class football player could be over the hill by the age of 30. And at that time I was already 23. So I turned down the offer and focused more seriously on my acting career. It turned out to be one of the intelligent moves that I made in my life.”