Football is his passion and his pay cheque. So you'd think that Steven Gerrard would live somewhere with a decent patch of grass for a kickabout.
But instead, his back garden looks like this. The England midfielder and Liverpool captain, 28, has just spent 15 months cramming the area behind his house with all the luxuries his wife and children might need.
As well as the swimming pool, there's a two-storey gym with a solarium to ensure wife Alex Curran, 25, has a year-round tan.
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Overboard: Steven Gerrard and wife Alex Curran's one-acre plot is home to a two-storey leisure centre complete with solarium and plunge pool, a sauna, a putting green and children's playground
Off one side of the gym is a kitchenette with showers and changing rooms, a plunge pool, jacuzzi and sauna.
The gym features eight fitness machines including recumbent bike, rower and treadmill. At the other end is a small putting green.
The Liverpool captain with his wife
Right behind the house there's a bark-covered playground with a pink wendy house, climbing frame, double swing, see-saw and spring-loaded rocking horse to keep children Lily Ella, four, and Lexie, two, occupied.
And in the middle of it all, a patch of turf barely large enough to turn a few cartwheels.
Gerrard's decision to overhaul the grounds triggered outrage among neighbours on the millionaire's row in Merseyside.
One said: 'As much as we hold Mr Gerrard in high esteem as a player we just wish he hadn't felt the need to go so overboard on his garden.
'The rest of us settle for nice lawns and trees and a few flower beds. This guy seems to have built his own playground.'
Gerrard had originally been granted planning permission in October 2007 for the 'detached two-storey building to be used as a garden pavilion and gymnasium with games room'.
Neighbours were infuriated and complained the gym looked like an 'Asda supermarket in a beauty spot'.
But it is believed Gerrard won over planners by offering to instal a living 'sedum roof', which includes grass, moss and other plants and helps cut fuel bills by keeping the building warmer in the winter.
A Liverpool insider said: 'Steve and Alex are obviously very sorry if neighbours have been upset or are inconvenienced by the building work. The last thing they want is for the neighbours to be unhappy. But this will be their dream home for life.'
Under construction: Workmen can be seen completing the kitchenette earlier this year, while the putting green has still not been started. The whole overhaul of the seaside mansion took 15 months
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1171251/Steven-Gerrards-mansion-pool-kids-playground-putting-green-gym-8230-wheres-grass.html#ixzz1ee7AACuy
