In a move that surprised many, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced this week that he'll be putting on his cleats and playing professional soccer while still acting as Bolivia's leader.

Morales, 54, a lifelong soccer fan who grew up in western Bolivia's Oruro Department, will be donning No. 10 and playing midfield for the Sports Boys team, located in Bolivia's southeastern Santa Cruz province starting this August, according to Reuters.

"He loves soccer, and he plays well," Sport Boys president Mario Cronenbold told Reuters this week.

As the Voice of Russia points out, local media in Bolivia are claiming that Morales is the world's first incumbent president to double as both a professional soccer player and a head of state. Morales will be under the tutelage of Sports Boys coach Nestor Clausen, who won the World Cup with Argentina's team in 1986.

However, others are not quite as enthusiastic about Morales' decision to get on the field.

"State officials are constitutionally prohibited from earning two salaries, except for university teaching. Double AFP, double health insurance and four bonuses. Tell the manager of Sport Boys and the new player, that instead they go for paying in prizes after a win or after having played 90 minutes, " Councilwoman Gabriela Ichaso from Santa Cruz wrote on her Facebook account.

Cronenbold told reporters at a news conference this week that since the news broke that Morales would play for Sports Boys, the club has already received calls from major companies in Bolivia that wanted to sponsor the team's jersey. With word traveling across the globe of Morales' signing with the team, it appears that Sports Boys is starting to draw a lot of international attention.

The plan appears to be having Morales play for 15 to 20 minutes per game. Regarding the playing shape of the middle-aged president, Cronenbold did not appear all that concerned.

"As I told the president, jokingly, we are not putting the President of Uruguay on the field," Cronenbold said, a reference to Uruguay head of state Jose Mujica, who is 78. "We are contracting a person who is in very good shape and who lives soccer."

However, the publicity of the move is also a two-way street, it appears. Morales, who has presided over Bolivia since 2006, has been picked by most polls as the favorite to win re-election for a second term this year, and the added attention he has received for his signing with the team may gain him added favorable publicity. However, it could also open him up to attacks from his political opposition for not taking his job as president seriously.

On a sidenote, Morales has been in the international spotlight before regarding soccer. In 2010, when Morales played against his political opponents in a charity soccer game, he drew ridicule for kneeing an opponent in the groin during the game.