Ben Greenhalgh: A look at the Football's Next Star winner's career after signing for Inter

Football's Next Star. A seven-episode series in which unknown English footballers battled it out for a contract with Jose Mourinho's Inter side in 2010.

Described by many (me) as the greatest seven hours of television history, the Sky One show introduced us to famous characters like the self-proclaimed 'next Thierry Henry' Anthony O'Connor, goalscoring machine Hicham Abdellah (#JusticeForHicham) and eventual winner Ben Greenhalgh.

Greenhalgh never seemed like the obvious winner (don't make me mention Hicham again), but host Jamie Redknapp was infatuated. He would hype up Greenhalgh so much that it was impossible not to believe him.

Greenhalgh was propelled to international superstardom when Mourinho took a liking to the teenager and handed him professional six-month contract with Inter just a few months before they won Serie A, Coppa Italia and Champions League. Not too shabby.

The winger didn't play at all in that season (obviously), but he did manage to get a spot in the squad for the Champions League final. He even got a winner's medal, only to lose it a few years later. That's cool, not as if it was valuable or anything.

He might have lost a once-in-a-lifetime heirloom, but he did gain a new one-year contract, and a loan to the Italian third tier followed. The writing was on the wall there, and despite a solid season with Calcio Como, Greenhalgh was let go in 2012.

In terms of his next move, Greenhalgh knew his stock was high. He was obviously no Hicham, but his name still carried some weight, and spells with Brighton and Birmingham's development sides followed, before Greenhalgh took the decision to turn back to non-league.

A return to Welling in 2012 followed for Greenhalgh who, despite a brief spell up in Scotland, has spent the majority of his career kicking about in the English non-league. There was just an 18-month spell with the best side on the planet at the time. Standard. Like Julien Faubert to Real Madrid multiplied by 1,000.

It's safe to say that the Inter gig didn't exactly work out, and Greenhalgh admitted to SPORTbible that it could have all been different had he not won the show as a potential move to Tottenham to be one of Harry Redknapp's wheely deals was on the cards.

"I remember Jamie [Redknapp] said to me after I won the show that he had his father on the phone about a potential deal," he recalled. "If I hadn't have won the show, he was waiting with a two-year deal. To this day I would love to have taken that option because I would've been in England, playing football where I wanted to be and it would've been easier to make more of a career back home too.

"But I couldn't turn down Inter. Being out there for two years in the reserves definitely effected my chances of returning because I went off the radar. But being part of something at Inter, and training with the team that won the Champions League and the treble under Mourinho is something I can't get my head round to this day."

These days, Greenhalgh is a bit of a jack of all trades. The 28-year-old has been playing non-league football, but he's also an academy manager at Dartford, and in 2015, he even turned pro on the golf scene.

He has spent plenty of time in front of the camera. Greenhalgh moonlights as a Cristiano Ronaldo body double and has done a lot of advertising for adidas as 'guy with sick tekkerz', and he even popped up on ITV gameshow Tenable not too long ago.

Greenhalgh is clear about what the future holds. He may still continue as a footballer, but his main goal now is to become Management's Next Star. Probably wouldn't watch that show. (That's a lie yes I would).

Currently working on his coaching badges, Greenhalgh hopes to follow in the footsteps of Mourinho and make a real name for himself in the dugout.

Wonder what Hicham's up to these days...

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