Dominic Thiem's competitive career was supposed to have ended in Vienna in October 2024, in front of a home crowd that gave the former US Open champion a tearful send-off. Instead, the Austrian has picked a ball back up - just not the round-strung kind.
Thiem, once ranked as high as No. 3 in the world, has officially registered as a player with Badener AC, a club competing in the eighth tier of Austrian football, Sport5 reports. The registration with the Austrian Football Federation went through on July 15, with the move only becoming public this week.
It is a modest level for a man who won the 2020 US Open, reached three other Grand Slam finals and claimed 17 ATP titles across a career defined by brutal groundstrokes and an unyielding competitive streak. A wrist injury suffered in 2021 never fully healed, and Thiem's ranking slid steadily until he called time at 31.
Football, though, was never a passing hobby for Thiem. He grew up playing alongside tennis and turned out for SC Lichtenwörth, the club in his hometown, before the demands of the ATP Tour took over. According to Sport5's report, a friend already on Badener AC's books helped arrange his arrival at the club.
There will be no red-carpet treatment. Sporting director Sergej Petrovic said the club has heard Thiem is a capable footballer and expects him to see game time, but stressed that every player - Grand Slam champion or not - has to fight for a place in the starting eleven.
For a 32-year-old with nothing left to prove on a tennis court, that competitive test appears to be exactly the point. Thiem's move gives Badener AC, an obscure amateur side even by Austrian standards, an unlikely moment in the spotlight - and gives its new signing a fresh arena in which to keep competing.
