Former Birmingham City winger Jota Peleteiro is planning to revolutionise the agriculture industry, according to Spanish newspaper ABC.
The 32-year-old hung up his boots two years ago, even though he had offers from several clubs.
It’s claimed the ex-Birmingham City man’s desire to create an impact in agriculture convinced him to leave football.
“Since I was young, I always wanted to be a footballer. I got it and I wouldn’t change it for the world. But life has different moments and as I got older, I became more and more interested in the business world. I have always had a vision of leaving a mark on the earth. Be an example and try to make the world a better place,” he told ABC.
Peleteiro was at Birmingham City for two seasons between 2017 and 2019, scoring eight goals and registering 11 assists from 75 games in the process.
He left the Blues to join their local rivals Aston Villa in 2019, and a year later, he moved to Deportivo Alavés, which was the Spaniard’s last club.
The former Birmingham City man has played a part in setting up Groinn, a company that aims to optimise agriculture production with the help of technology. It feeds information back to farmers so they can get the best from their crops, and the device used costs just €175.
The product has started to be marketed in the last two months and the company has already signed deals which have pushed their market value to €750m. This is just the beginning as ABC state the ‘projections speak of €3.5bn’ within three years, whether this is valuation or income isn’t clear.
“We have created something that will make the world more sustainable and at the same time give a better quality of life to farmers,” Peleteiro explained.
He spent his football career between Spain and England, at Brentford, Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Celta Vigo, Eibar and Alaves. Peleteiro claims his experience as a player is helping him run the business.
“I’ve taken many values from football to business. Respect, mental stability… Football is a competition in which you expose yourself 100% every day,” he added.
“And it doesn’t matter if things go well or badly, you always have to be equally constant. In business it is the same. There are hard weeks, where it seems like you are not making progress. But you can’t lose sight of the focus.”
