Former Arsenal and France star Mathieu Flamini met with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace this week as he shared an insight into his post-playing life.
Flamini, 42, who also represented Marseille, AC Milan, Crystal Palace and Getafe before retiring in 2019, has generated significant wealth since he closed the curtain on his career.
After co-founding GFBiochemicals, a company focused on creating sustainable alternatives to fossil-based products, in 2008, the business has gone from strength to strength over recent years.
Flamini, who acts as CEO, has an estimated net worth of £10billion and he has become a leading voice in climate innovation and environmental responsibility.
And, earlier this week, Flamini shared photos from what appeared to be a summit alongside King Charles and business leaders in the sector.
The former midfielder was seen mingling with others and in one snap he was shaking the King’s hand.
Captioning the post, Flamini said: ‘His Majesty King Charles is stepping up for the bioeconomy. Europe is at a turning point. Act now, or fall behind. The U.S. is scaling. China is accelerating.
‘Meanwhile, Europe’s industrial edge, especially in chemicals (now just 13 per cent globally) is shrinking. The solution? Green chemistry. The technology is ready. What we need is speed and ambition.
‘Now is the moment for bold action in Biotech Act II: Create demand (30 per cent bio-based by 2030) (and) Extend CBAM to chemicals.
‘Europe won’t win on price with China but it can lead on innovation, sustainability, and responsibility. Strong leadership is here. Now it’s time to deliver.’
Flamini has previously met King Charles through his status as a member of the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance, an organisation that ‘aims to accelerate the transition to a nature-first circular bioeconomy that is climate neutral, inclusive and powers prosperity’.
Meanwhile, GFBiochemicals’ green credentials have been burnished by their groundbreaking production of levulinic acid, which reduces CO2 produced when manufacturing products like detergents by up to 80 per cent.
Flamini has also co-founded a supplement range called UNITY alongside former Arsenal team-mate Mesut Ozil, which was developed with scientists from the University of Westminster.
The 42-year-old has previously shared that he was inspired after growing up as a fan of both ‘football and sustainability’.
‘I grew up in Marseille near the sea, and was aware of the environmental questions around ocean plastics and chemical pollution from a very young age,’ he shared.
‘We didn’t know if it’d be energy, chemical or urban recycling, and we just ended up meeting with a team of scientists in Milan and started moving in that direction.’
A lifelong advocate for healthy living, Flamini has also followed a plant-based diet since he was 15 and believes that lifestyle helped extend his career.
He is similarly pushing for more sustainability in football, from how shirts are produced to how fans travel to games.
‘Climate change and sustainability is a hot topic these days,’ he told the Times last year. ‘But we need to understand we are not only thinking about saving the Amazon rainforest. We’re actually thinking about health.
‘Take the Premier League. They have a business model to fulfil for the next 30 years and pollution is becoming a problem. In more parts of the world, kids aren’t practising outdoors because of high pollution.
‘If you have fewer people practising, fewer are following the sport, and the talent base declines. That’s relevant.’
