{"id":275882,"date":"2025-11-10T17:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275882\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T17:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:48:11","slug":"disgraced-footy-star-who-was-jailed-for-smuggling-2kg-of-ice-takes-a-huge-step-towards-getting-his-life-back-on-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275882\/","title":{"rendered":"Disgraced footy star who was jailed for smuggling 2kg of ice takes a HUGE step towards getting his life back on track"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former NRL<\/a> player Manu Vatuvei has revealed that he is about to step into an exciting new chapter in his life by unveiling that he and his partner Eva have bought a house.<\/p>\n

The winger, who played 226 times for the New Zealand Warriors, published an image of himself and his partner grinning from ear-to-ear as they stood outside the front door of their new home, with a ‘sold’ sign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The caption on the Instagram post read: ‘A new chapter begins.<\/p>\n

‘Feeling beyond grateful and blessed to call this place ours.<\/p>\n

‘Thank you to everyone who’s been part of this journey, couldn’t have done it without your support.<\/p>\n

‘Here’s to new memories, growth, and plenty of laughter in our new home.<\/p>\n

\"Former <\/p>\n

Former NRL player Manu Vatuvei has unveiled that he is about to step into an exciting new chapter in his life, revealing that he and his partner Eva, have bought a house (pictured)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"In <\/p>\n

In March 2022, Vatuvei (pictured) was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison for smuggling 2kg of methamphetamine into New Zealand, however, he was later paroled in 2023<\/p>\n

‘Let the renovations begin.’<\/p>\n

In March 2022, Vatuvei was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison for smuggling 2kg of methamphetamine into New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old pleaded guilty to a single charge of importing a class A drug, after he, along with his brother Lopini Lautau Mafi and two others, were arrested under a major police operation in 2019.<\/p>\n

The former footy player, who has five children, was paroled under special conditions in May 2023.<\/p>\n

Since then, Vatuvei, who announced his retirement in 2019 before going on to pursue a brief boxing career, has since spoken openly about how prison had saved him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking earlier this year, he reflected on the ordeal and insisted that he was taking ownership of his actions, while trying to move on from them.<\/p>\n

”I take ownership of what I did and I’m accountable for it, and now I’m changing my life again and rebuilding from the start,’ he told the New Zealand Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘I’m ready to move forward, but it’ll always be on me, everything that I’ve done.<\/p>\n

\"Speaking <\/p>\n

Speaking earlier this year, he reflected on the ordeal and insisted that he was taking ownership of his actions, while trying to move on from them<\/p>\n

\"During <\/p>\n

During his career, the Auckland-born footy player (pictured carrying the football) would also go on to win 29 caps for New Zealand, before later switching his nationality to play for Tonga<\/p>\n

‘All the hate that I get, I’ll just use that as energy to show that I’m doing something good.’<\/p>\n

During his career, the Auckland-born footy player would also go on to win 29 caps for New Zealand, before later switching his nationality to play for Tonga.<\/p>\n

He also captured the hearts of the New Zealand public in 2019 by winning Dancing with the Stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following his release from prison, Vatuvei took up a role with Dave Letele’s Buttabean Motivation – a fitness movement aiming to help people of all ages stay healthy.<\/p>\n

‘I help a lot of people through training and, for what we do with David, I owe him a lot. He never looked down at me or anything,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘He just took me under his wing and gave me the opportunity, but then it was up to me to work my ass off. He just opened the door, and then I just had to walk in and make the move.<\/p>\n

‘Now I’m just working hard and giving back to our community again, sharing my story with the people I train, because they go through a lot with mental battles.<\/p>\n

‘I’ve been through mental battles too, so I’m just happy that I can show support in that way.’<\/p>\n

In his spare time, Vatuvei has also been giving talks around schools in New Zealand, helping to inspire younger generations to achieve greatness.<\/p>\n

‘I’m ready to move forward, but it’ll always be on me, everything that I’ve done. At the end of the day, I just use that as fuel to make me work harder to rebuild again,’ he explained.<\/p>\n

‘All the hate that I get, I’ll just use that as energy to show that I’m doing something good.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NRL player Manu Vatuvei has revealed that he is about to step into an exciting new chapter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,100,1202,761,762,1736,158,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-275882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-instagram","12":"tag-national-rugby-league","13":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-nrl","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}