SPECIAL DELIVERY
FORMER West Ham flop Marco Boogers has swapped the Premier League for parcels... by founding a courier company.
The Dutch striker failed to deliver following his 1995 move from Sparta Rotterdam, just making four sub appearances.
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He was sent off at Manchester United for a high challenge on Gary Neville, earning a four-match ban.
Despite paying a then hefty £1million for Boogers, boss Harry Redknapp deemed him not the full package - and shipped him out after signing Iain Dowie to replace him.
The striker was even rumoured to have taken refuge in a caravan in Holland, although the story was later put down to a misunderstanding between two Upton Park staff.
He went home in February 1996 to recover from a knee op, and never returned to London.
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Boogers played for seven Dutch clubs in all, ending his post-Hammers career with Groningen and Waalwijk.
He went on to set up the QLS Fulfilment & Pakketdienst logistics company in his home town Dordrecht. It now employs over 350 people.
And the 56-year-old has turned his back on football with few regrets.
Boogers said: "During my playing career my wife Patricia wasn't able to work, as she was looking after our kids.
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"When I retired I told her: 'It's your time now.' Her parents used to deliver parcels for the Selektvracht company.
"She took it over from them, and it grew massively in a short amount of time. The coronavirus crisis created huge demand.
"We moved to bigger premises, but within a month we had already outgrown them, and since then our turnover has become huge.
"That is great, although the money doesn't interest me - just as it didn't while I was a footballer. We wanted to leave something for our children and grandchildren.
"The firm has grown bigger and faster that we ever thought it might.
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"My son Quincy will take over from us. He was a good footballer with Dordrecht, but they didn't renew his contract - he just lacked that bit of toughness.
"He went to Germany to sign a three-year deal with Wuppertaler SV. But he rang us to say he hadn't signed, as he wanted to work for a logistics centre in Utrecht."
Ex-Eredivisie regular Boogers told Dutch magazine ElfVoetbal that his former world no longer interests him.
"I am done with the world of football," he insisted. "I regularly get invitations from my former clubs to attend matches, but never go.
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"I just watched one game last season, when I went with a business contact.
"We have had an executive box for 10 people at Dordrecht for four seasons now. I have just been twice in all that time."