Bankruptcy, alimony, drugs: It is a wretched life for retired footballers

For their sweat, the world’s best players earn a fortune. But, unfortunately, for a great number of these young billionaires, the riches evaporate as soon as they retire from competitive football.

Football is nice. And entertaining. And unpredictable. And addictive. Very addictive.

In the world of sports, it remains the most popular around the world, and it is easy to see why.

When 22 men — and, nowadays, women — are let loose on a pitch and handed a ball, they lose themselves in the drama.

The players are the stars in their own movies. Young, starry-eyed and athletic, they are the engine of the game. And the fuel too.

Their job is to not only score goals, but also do it in a most entertaining, skilful way. They are soldiers on a battlefield, protected from harm by rules of engagement, and paid a fortune to kick a ball around.

Football, for the hundreds of its fans, is pure bliss and raw, nervy emotion. It is suspense that dwarfs Hollywood, and heartbreak worse than a lover’s jibe.

It is a unifying factor, a militaristic call to defend the pride of an entire nation, and a celebration of the skills and goal-ferreting abilities of the 22 on the pitch.

EARN A FORTUNE

For their sweat, the world’s best players earn a fortune. Portugal star Christiano Ronaldo trousered a cool Sh7 billion last year from salary, winnings allowances and endorsements.

Argentinian Lionel Messi earned about Sh5.6 billion, while Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic took home about Sh3.5 billion.

Sports blog, Sporteology, reports that Ivorian Yaya Toure, the only African on the list of the top 10 earners last year, earned about Sh1.9 billion — Sh1.6 billion from salary and winnings top-ups, and Sh219 million from endorsements.

Clearly, then, the best of the best cream home a thick one. But, unfortunately, for a great number of these young billionaires, the riches evaporate as soon as they retire from competitive football.

And they retire quite early — the average age when they hang their boots is 34 years — meaning they still have many more years ahead of them in which to squander their billions.

Off the pitch, a footballer is no longer that attractive. He is no longer a star, rarely gets endorsements, and even more rarely makes it to the news pages. For a 34-year-old, that can be quite debilitating.

Studies have found that three out of five former English Premier League footballers go bankrupt due to bad economic decisions or lack of financial planning, and while it is true, for example, that Englishman Wayne Rooney or Brazilian Neymar may never have to do a day’s work after they call it a day, that is quite a startling statistic.

Away from the glitzy lifestyle of top-league football, the reality for many players when they retire is anything but cosy.

Excessive spending — characterised by competition among players on who has the latest Lamborghini, who can gamble well, and who can drink whom under the table — and alimony are a football player’s worst enemy.

DECLARED INSOLVENT

In May last year, for instance, former England goalkeeper David James dived into insolvency after declaring himself bankrupt (through a debtors’ petition) following a divorce case.

The Daily Telegraph reported that he earned £20 million (about Sh3 billion) in his 25-year career, and that he also secured other lucrative contracts in his career, including working as a model for Armani.

The Sun reported that James, who played in the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa as England’s number one and spent most of his career at the highest level of the game — playing for Liverpool, Manchester City and West Ham — built up debts following a costly divorce from his wife Tanya in 2005.

He is now a pundit for BT Sport, a group of sports television channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

AFRICAN GREATS

In Africa, many young players dream of joining the best clubs in the world and earning a fortune in the process.

They look up to such continental greats as Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o, the Touré Brothers, Nwankwo Kanu and Jay Jay Okocha, who have played at the highest level of the game and inspired a whole generation to dusty village pitches.

But bankruptcy is no respecter of roots, and so some African stars who have earned the coveted opportunity to shine and bag fortunes have also frittered it all away.

Cameroonian Eric Djemba-Djemba easily comes to mind. Djemba-Djemba was in 2007 declared bankrupt despite having trousered a cool £75,000 a month (approximately Sh11.3 million) while playing for English side Manchester United.

For the midfielder, who shone at the 2002 World Cup, earning such a huge amount of money monthly was more than he could handle, and he admitted to “blowing” it all away via a lavish lifestyle. He however claims that he has since grown up, and that, at 33, he now loves “the simple things in life”.

“I have good memories of being at Manchester United, but I was too young, I was only 21,” he told the Daily Record in February this year. “It was difficult handling the money. Now I am a grown up, I have learned. I am happy with what I have achieved in my career.”

Across the border from Cameroon into neighbouring Nigeria, former Chelsea player Celestine Babayaro has creditors hot on his heels after being declared bankrupt in 2011.

The player, who was considered to be Chelsea’s ace, was reported to earn £25,000 (Sh3.8 million) a week at the height of his career with Chelsea.

After an injury-plagued spell at St James’ Park, Babayaro’s career stalled after he moved to the US in the hope of starring alongside David Beckham at LA Galaxy.

However, he was released by the club, and his hopes of making a comeback with Portsmouth were dogged by a bout of malaria. Babayaro is said to have racked up debt despite having a fully paid contract at Newcastle when he was released in 2007.

Across the pond, former England international Paul Gascoigne has been battling addiction to gin for the last 16 years, and has gone through rehabilitation seven times.

According to the Daily Mirror, this battle with alcohol has cost Gascoigne a pretty penny (paying around Sh900,000 a month to be helped off the bottle), and that this has added to his financial woes.

Six years ago, Paul Gascoigne had the tax collector on his back after being slapped with a bankruptcy petition of over Sh30 million in unpaid taxes. As a high profile player, he earned a fortune while playing for Newcastle, Tottenham Hotspur, Middlesbrough and Everton.

At the peak of his career, he also secured a number of lucrative sponsorships, but since he stopped playing in 2004, he has suffered alcohol and drug addictions, as well as mental health problems.

In an interview with the Daily Mail in November 2011, he said that, after retiring from football, he found a ready companion in drink and cocaine.

“I went loopy,” he said. “The phone calls I made were unbelievable. The worst one was when I went four months without food or water... and four bottles of whisky a day. Football was what I lived for, but that was gone.”

Paul talked about his checkered past in his 2006 book Being Gazza: Tackling My Demons. In it, he detailed undergoing therapy for bulimia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, and alcoholism.

These cases highlight the sorry lives of many football players after retirement. Xpro, a charity organisation set up for the welfare of footballers after retirement, says that despite some earning an average of Sh4.5 million a week, many either squander their cash or take up misleading investment advisers.

“It might sound incredible to normal fans, but it can and does happen,” the organisation’s chief executive Geoff Scott is quoted as saying on xpro.org.

The charity adds that after a year in retirement, 33 per cent of players get divorced while 40 per cent are declared bankrupt within five years of playing their last game, and 80 per cent suffer from osteoarthritis.

However, Xpro’s figures have been disputed by the chief executive of England’s Professional Footballers Association, Gordon Taylor, who argues that the actual figures are between 10 per cent and 20 per cent.

“The fact is, as regards them going bankrupt, it’s nothing like those figures (three out of every five),” Taylor told BBC radio in March last year.

“Footballers, with very few exceptions, aren’t going to earn as much money when they finish playing. We encourage young players to save for the future, for when they retire.”

According to sundayoliseh.tv, 65 per cent of sportsmen go broke after quitting the limelight, and the numbers are worse among African stars, whose wealth is shared with family.

The site also states that most stars meet their spouses when they are active and are at their best. But when retirement docks, it not only creates a change of lifestyle, but also a change in social standing, which ends up pressuring marriages.

After retirement, when many people are expected to go slow on their savings, several sportsmen continue spending and living like they used to when they were active or at their prime.

Many spend fortunes on jewellery, mistresses, and holiday homes bought on loan or other means in areas they hardly visit. By the time they realise they are leaking cash, it is too late.