I used to play for Arsenal and Nottingham Forest - now I sell fertiliser for a living
by Mark Wakefield · football.londonArsenal are preparing to face Nottingham Forest in the Premier League this weekend - and a former player for both clubs has now forged himself a very different career away from the game.
Henri Lansbury began his career with the Arsenal academy, eventually going on to make eight appearances for the Gunners. The 34-year-old had loan spells with Scunthorpe, Watford, Norwich and West Ham before going on to sign for Forest on a permanent deal in 2012.
After four-and-a-half years at the City Ground, making 150 appearances, Lansbury eventually went on to have spells at Aston Villa, Bristol City and Luton Town before calling time on his playing career last year. The former midfielder retired from professional football at the age of 32 and went into a new venture - gardening.
Lansbury launched a new product called Grass Gains One Shot Wonder Liquid Fertiliser, which helps make grass greener. The former Arsenal star, who is now known as 'The Lawn Lad', explained last year why he decided to go into the gardening business after calling time on his football career.
"It came about during the first [Covid] lockdown when I was stuck at home and got into gardening," Lansbury told talkSPORT in July last year. "I started to spray my weeds with toxic stuff and put toxic fertiliser down and my missus wasn't too happy about the kids running on the grass straight after.
"I was trying to usher them off and she said, 'Why can't they just make an organic fertiliser?' I put my head together with my mate and me and the boys have cracked on and taken it to another level."
And Lansbury's future plans for his business could see him involved back in football in some form.
"We're going in the right direction, a few local clubs have asked for it and we've put it down on their pitches as well," Lansbury added.
"I want to give back to the local clubs really, I want them to have a nice pitch to play on, there's nothing better than a kid running on a pitch with stripes on it and that's what it does, it helps stripe it off."
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