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It's always felt like Arsene Wenger is supposed to serve a greater purpose than coaching a football team.
It could just be his suave Frenchman 'professor-like' persona, or his ability to articulate himself exceptionally on a range of topics, but he's always given off a philosophical thinker vibe. It feels like he ought to be a custodian of the beautiful game, driving the decisions behind the long-term direction of football.
It's therefore no surprise that Wenger is being tipped to succeed the toxic Gianni Infantino as FIFA president. For so long, football's governing body has been ruled by capitalist vultures concerned only with maximising revenues. Football needs someone with its best interests at heart running it, and Wenger could be the right candidate.
With that said, here are three times the great man hinted that he was destined for more than just a managerial role.
Taking FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development role
The most obvious hint from Wenger that he's destined for more than coaching beautiful passing patterns was when he took a job doing much more than coaching beautiful passing patterns.
After leaving Arsenal in 2018, Wenger was linked with a number of other managerial roles, mostly in international football. However, he resisted the urge to get back on the training pitch, largely out of his unwavering loyalty to the Gunners, but also because he was offered a role at FIFA.
The organisation appointed Wenger as the Chief of Global Football Development, handing him responsibility for promoting the development of men's and women's football worldwide. His remit includes coaching education, technical matters, and chairing FIFA's Technical Study Group, which analyses major tournaments.
"I have always been interested in analysing football from a broader perspective," he explained at the time - a glaring nod to his interest in matters beyond the pitch (via FIFA).
Wenger wants a World Cup every 2 years
Wenger has been a staunch advocate for a biennial men's World Cup in recent years. While this stance hasn't been met with open arms by a lot of the football world, it is an example of Wenger pushing for more influence over the sport.
In his current role at FIFA, he doesn't have the power to enact such a huge change to the footballing calendar. He can submit as many proposals as he wants, but opposition from leagues, players and other football authorities means it's unlikely to ever come to fruition.
However, the fact that he is so insistent on holding the most-watched football tournament on the planet every two years points to Wenger yearning for more power. If he were to succeed Infantino, this is a change he'd have a much greater chance of enacting.
"Organise only competitions of meaning," he told beIN Sports in 2021.
"Kick all the parallel competitions out of the game. People must understand what is at stake and only have games with meaning.
"If you look at the teams in the World Cups usually the average age is 27 or 28. Because the World Cup is every four years there are very few chances to win it again because when they go back to the next World Cup they are 32 or 33.
"That's why maybe we should organise the World Cup every two years."
Wenger is obsessed with youth development across the globe
If you've listened to Wenger over the years, you'll know how important developing future generations of talent is to him. He has repeatedly spoken about how players are developed, while also addressing the need to fix the imbalance between football's wealthiest nations and the rest of the world, regarding the development of youngsters.
He spoke of this prior to leaving the Emirates dugout and has spoken about it even more since. This isn't the sort of macro issue most managers address, with the majority of football coaches sticking to conversations about things within their remit - tactics, winning matches and fixture schedules.
The fact that he is so concerned with addressing imbalances and developing players once again suggests that Wenger is indeed destined for more holistic control over the sport.
"Now, it is more about what is next for the game: how can we develop it to be even better around the world?" Wenger said in 2019 (via FIFA).
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