Serie D player decided to quit football to become a porn star

Often when people go for a career change, it involves ditching a corporate nine-to-five office job but not for one man.

Davide Iovinella gave up his day job as a footballer - one of the world's most sought-after roles - to become an adult film star.

In fact, he decided to hang up his boots and quit his job at the age of 24, the Sun reports, meaning that he was then able to pursue his dream of working in the adult film industry.

Iovinella was a footballer for Serie D side ASD Caldio Pomigliano when he realised he wasn't making enough cash - and that he could enjoy a better salary elsewhere.

He then applied for a role in an adult movie, and, following a successful audition, became one of 3,000 people selected to work with director Rocco Siffredi.

Iovinella flew to Budapest to visit Siffredi's Academy, and it was here that he took on the stage alter-ego of Davide Montana, as he's now known on Instagram.

"It's not like being in bed with your partner, so you have to work hard and be stable," Iovinella said of his career change, according to the Sun.

Back in 2018, he spent some time in Budapest, and revealed that he intended to try and find a local club over there.

He added: "The ideal would be to find a club in Hungary."

Of course, he's not the only person to have ditched the football pitch for a slightly surprising new line of work.

One of the most famous examples has to be former footballer Eric Cantona, who famously turned his back on sport to try his hand at acting - which, thankfully, it turned out he was pretty good at.

Then there's German ex-Werder Bremen and Hoffenheim goalkeeper Tim Wiese, who chose to quit the football game in order to step into the ring as a WWE fighter known as 'The Machine'.

Wiese made his professional wrestling debut in Munich in November 2016, where he was teamed with Irish wrestler Sheamus and Cesaro (aka Claudio Castagnoli) to defeat tag team Primo and Epico - known as The Shining Stars - and Florida-born Bo Dallas.

Former Burton Albion goalie Stuart Tomlinson went for a similar route, taking a shot at being a WWE wrestler. However, he didn't manage to do quite as well, and was axed by the WWE in September 2016.