The film life of Thomas Gravesen! He knocked out Ronaldo's tooth, dated an adult movie actress, then turned to poker

He shocked team-mates, coaches and managers during his career which began at Vejle Boldklub, to an amazing adventure that took him to Hamburg, Everton, Real Madrid and Celtic.

The film life of Thomas Gravesen, the footballer nicknamed “Mad Dog”

Then, at the age of 32, he suddenly decided to retire and disappeared, only to appear a few years later in Las Vegas, where he lived in a luxury community, with the legendary tennis player Andre Agassi and the famous actor Nicolas Cage as neighbors, writes sportal.blic.rs.

It is not by chance that he chose the “city of sins” to live, because after his career he devoted himself to poker, which brought him, but also took away, a considerable amount of money.

Rumors are circulating that the Dane has amassed a fortune of approx 135,000,000 dollars in the US, but there are also reports that it lost approx 50,000,000 in a single poker game.

There was even a biographical book written about his career and life, which says a lot about how picturesque and interesting it all was.

Thomas Gravesen shocked in Bucharest in 2003: the photo from GSP captured by photojournalist Cristi Preda went around the world

Thomas Gravesen (38 years old) is the man who scored the goal of his career even against Romania. In 2003, in Romania – Denmark, final score 2-5, on the sand of the “Naţional” stadium, the Nordic scored from the middle of the field, in the 53rd minute of the match played in the EURO 2004 preliminaries.

Recognized as an eccentric footballer, Gravesen did not shy away from showing his penis during the training that his national team carried out before the match in Bucharest.

Gravesen stuck his penis over teammate Claus Jensen's head, and the image, captured by GSP photojournalist Cristi Preda, it was broadcast by the mass media around the world.

Thomas Gravesen, during training in Bucharest. Photo: Cristi Preda (GSP)

Thomas Gravesen knocked Ronaldo's tooth out in training

There are many interesting stories about Thomas Gravesen, too one of them is that he knocked out a tooth of the legendary Ronaldo Nazario during a training sessionwith whom he was a colleague at Real Madrid for a while.

In 2005, at the age of 29, the Dane arrived at the “Santiago Bernabeu” from Everton, where he established himself as one of the best defensive midfielders in Europe. However, many wondered if he would be able to repeat such performances in a different environment.

Gravesen was known as an uncompromising player, prone to duels and physical contact, and this was the case not only in matches, but also in training. Often, in training, he entered duels as if it were one of the most important matches, and according to the testimonies of his colleagues, he was not gentle even off the field. The Dane wasn't shy about pranking some of the Galacticos in a bear hug, and those who felt that hug claim they couldn't break free of it.

Thomas Gravesen and Ronaldo in training. Photo: Facebook @RMCF – Los Blancos Central

His colleague Borja Fernandez said: “Thomas was a character, he made us laugh a lot. He was so funny and honest.”

However, it went a little too far when, at one point, he pounced on the best striker in the world, Ronaldo Nazariowho many still consider today to be the deadliest goalscorer of all time.

You can imagine the horror on the faces of Real's technical staff as they watched 'The Ogre', as the Spanish journalists called him, brutally toy with their goalscoring machine and the man who represented one of the team's powerhouses.

Despite the fact that he was 183 cm tall and was not at all easy, Ronaldo was thrown by Gravesen like a doll, and at one point in that “game” he even lost a tooth. The incident, of course, also made it into the newspapers, but everything quieted down quickly, as there was no ill intent.

Thomas Gravesen made love to an adult film actress

From the moment he became a footballer at Real Madrid, the attention of the world public focused on Gravesen much more than he had been used to until then. He wasn't a star like Beckham or Ronaldo, but his character was a reason to appear on the front page of the newspapers.

The ordinary life he led during his stay in Hamburg or Liverpool disappeared, but once he came to Madrid, he began to intrigue the non-sporting media as well. It wasn't just big news in Denmark, it went beyond European borders, and his behavior deviated from the desired image for a footballer of a club that calls itself “royal”.

Danish football journalist Johan Lingholm-Bjerge once explained:

“Even now, after he retired, if anything happens to Gravesen, it's all over the newspapers in Denmark, because people like to read it. He doesn't feel he owes the media anything, because there have been conflicts. He's had relationships with women and you can imagine if a famous footballer starts a new relationship, it's in all the magazines, and a lot of the stories probably weren't true. He's had enough of it.”

One of the girls who brought the European media spotlight to Gravesen is Kira Eggers, known for being an adult film actress. She also worked for Playboy TV and posed as a model, and at one point ended up in a relationship with the Danish footballer.

When the press found out about their relationship, interest in him reached another stratosphere. It was the kind of story tabloid journalists dream of. For Gravesen, this was the first public relationship since his split from his teenage sweetheart, Gitte Pedersen.

Gitte Pedersen, Thomas Gravesen's teenage girlfriend: “He was shy”

Gitte herself did not hide her surprise when these stories reached her:

“Thomas and I had a very quiet life, so I was very surprised when I saw him with Kira. I'm not sure that Tomas takes the relationship as seriously as Kira. But I wish them both happiness, I'm not jealous. We spent time together and we both moved on.”

Thomas Gravesen and Gitte Pedersen. Photo: Erik Kragh/ ekstrabladet.dk

She told how their relationship began as teenagers and revealed that Thomas was then so shy that he asked a friend to ask for her number.

“I just couldn't believe that tough football player was too shy to ask me. So I let him sweat a bit before I gave him the number and I can say we hit it off from the start and we did all the things that normal young people do when they're having fun.”

Thomas Gravesen attacked Wayne Rooney with fireworks

David Moyes, who is currently in his second tenure as manager at Everton, once recalled a situation from his early days at 'Goodison Park' where the main characters were Thomas Gravesen and Wayne Rooney.

It was the 2003/04 season, when Rooney was already becoming the star of the Candies, and as such he was an ideal target for the burly Dane, who used to play pranks on the most important players. So one day he decided to attack the young English striker with fireworks.

“It was an old gym, about 50 meters long. Thomas and Wayne were throwing fireworks. They had large rockets filled with gunpowder that they pointed at each otherMoyes said, adding: “Tomi was crazy in a good way. He was a great player and I loved him. He didn't want to listen, but not in a bad way. Sometimes he didn't want to hear you and just did his job. He was crazy in training. He was a good guy, but crazy,” the English coach recalled.

Thomas Gravesen and the nickname “Mad Dog”

James McFadden, one of his former Everton teammates, revealed some time ago in an interview with “Open Goal” how Gravesen earned his nickname “Mad Dog”. As he pointed out, at one point the Dane came with a paintball gun.

“Tomi was a brilliant guy. In every way. But he was also the most hyperactive of them all. Pretty good face-to-face. But in the group? A nightmare,” McFadden said with a smile.

And he continued with an anecdote: “One day he brought a paintball gun to practice and shot everything that moved. Simply, to break the monotony. The manager and the team couldn't believe their eyes, but for him it was absolutely normal,” said McFadden, who admitted that eventually they were all laughing as the Danish midfielder hunted them down the pitch like live targets.

The fight with Robinho ended his era at Real Madrid

After three years without a title, at Real Madrid, with the arrival of Fabio Capello as coach, it was expected that things would improve.

The club made some important signings for the 2006/07 season and brought in players such as Ruud van Nistelrooy and Fabio Cannavaro. However, the first of two back-to-back championship seasons got off to a bit of a rocky start, and Gravesen was the reason.

The hot-tempered Dane clashed in training in Austria with Robinho, after which both were suspended indefinitely.

Thomas Gravesen had an argument at a training session with Robinho. Photo: Facebook @RMCF – Los Blancos Central

Gravesen was then quickly sold to Celtic, where he spent the next two seasons.