Manny Pacquaio will need to box clever -- The Guardian

By Mark Rice-Oxley, Guardian.co.uk

Manny beware. The man generally considered to be the greatest pound-for-pound boxer in the world is hoping to make the leap from pugilist to politician, with a run for the Philippines congress.

But sportsmen generally don't make good statesmen. Yes, they have plenty of natural advantages: a large support base, widespread recognition, sometimes money, presence, and an undeniable will to win. But of the scores who have tried to reinvent themselves, you could count the genuine successes on the finger of one hand. Perhaps it's the subtleties, the policy nuances, the shifting allegiances that stump them. Perhaps it's that most are used to simple win-or-lose formula that rarely apply in politics.

Or perhaps it's simply that the public prefers its heroes to be raising cups and trophies, not issues.

Imran Khan, Pakistan

Pakistan's foremost sporting hero through the 1970s and 1980s, Khan led his country to its only World Cup triumph in 1992. He swapped a playboy lifestyle for politics, but pace and swing on the field failed to convert into momentum and electoral swing off it, and he became a marginal figure, notable chiefly for criticising everyone but himself.

George Weah, Liberia

Another poor boy made good, Weah was in his day Africa's most exciting footballer, a World Footballer of the Year, who again struggled to dazzle off the pitch. His 2005 run for president promised a fairytale ending when he won the first round, but he lost a run-off to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. A second bid for the presidency has not been ruled out.

Menzies Campbell

One of the few whose political career eclipsed his sprinting achievements, he stopped running for Britain after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and started running for the Liberals, later the Lib Dems.

Sebastian (Lord) Coe, UK

The Olympic double-gold medallist was elected to parliament in 1992, became a life peer in 2000 and helped London win the 2012 games.

Bernard Laporte, France

Rugby union scrum half who served Nicolas Sarkozy as sports secretary.

Bill Bradley, US

An NBA star in the 1970s, he rapidly reinvented himself as a Democrat politician, winning a Senate race within a year of retiring in 1977. After three terms he tried, and failed, to secure the Democrat nomination for the 2000 presidential election.

Colin (Lord) Moynihan

An Olympic silver medallist in Moscow in 1980 who swapped a cox's seat in the men's rowing eight for a safe Conservative seat in parliament.

Source: guardian.co.uk