Former Liverpool midfielder Vladimir Smicer has switched from football to politics as he bids to stand in a European election campaign.
The 40-year-old, who is one of 25 candidates within Czech party Vize 2014 (Vision 2014), has revealed that his main priority is to tackle obesity among children.
"It's not my ambition to be an MEP," BBC News quotes Smicer as saying. "In the Czech Republic obesity rates among children have quadrupled in the last 15 years.
"More than half of the adult population of the EU are overweight or obese. Among children it's one in seven. I see it in the kids around me. Fitness isn't 'in'.
"We've got to get our kids away from their computers, tablets and smartphones and get them moving. This is something Europe needs to care about."
Smicer, who spent six seasons playing for Liverpool, is best known for scoring the second goal in the Reds' Champions League final comeback against AC Milan in 2005.
