Gambling, Drugs and Alcohol Causing Bankrupt Footballers

It’s not just football clubs that go bankrupt. Clubs like Bury, Rushden & Diamonds and Chester City are a few clubs that have declared bankruptcy and have ceased to exist. These clubs made poor choices with player salaries far exceeding operating income in an effort to stay relevant on the pitch.

It’s estimated about 40% of professional football players go bankrupt within five years of retiring. How the fcuk do they manage that when an average Premier League footballer earns £60,000 a week? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons.

Poor Investments

It’s no surprise that investment firms are cultures when it comes to providing their services to players which often leads to some poor investment advice, similar to the bankrupted football clubs taking the advice to go ahead with certain player transfers. Almost 600 footballers including Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Andy Cole and Danny Murphy have lost millions of dollars to poor investments by Kingsbridge Asset Management.

Rumour also has it that Asamoah Gyan can’t even provide for his family any more. He used to drive around in a Rolls Royce and was earning £227,000 a week in China. Gyan even invested money in trying to launch his own airline in Ghana called Baby Jet Airlines. No I’m not joking.

Gyan’s Rolls Royce has been spotted in the streets of Ghana’s capital in an outrageous and insensitive contrast. His number plate also makes reference to Baby Jet. Lawl.

Divorce

Part of Gyan’s financial spiral also came about following a bitter divorce from his ex-wife. I’d be pissed too if he was flaunting a Rolls Royce around hard working Ghanaians. Gyan then demanded DNA tests to prove that her kids are his. Former star goalkeeper David James is another to declare bankruptcy, doing so in 2014 despite earning more than £20m in his playing career, modelling for Armani and having an impressive property portfolio.

Drugs and Alcohol

Paul Gascoigne was one of England’s greatest ever Footballers but in 2014 the national hero hit rock bottom and was facing homelessness following a life of drugs and alcohol during his career.

Former Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho also became victim to addition, fell into bankruptcy and was even thrown into a Paraguayan jail for entering the country with fake documents. It didn’t take him long to party after getting out of jail though.

Gambling

Many football players have been banned for breaching FA rules on betting. Joey Barton for instance was banned for placing more than 1200 bets over 10 years that broke FA rules.

A young Nicklas Bendtner almost fcuked his entire life up in a 90-minute roulette tilt which saw him lose £400,000. He managed to claw most of it back and wisely left the casino. Former players Paul Merson and Keith Gillespie both lost £7m to gambling which led them to bankruptcy.

Clout

When players go from nothing to having it all its easy to get carried away with a fleet of exotic vehicles, mansions and the upkeep of an entourage of leeches. Eric Djemba-Djemba flopped at United but he still got his bags of cash.

A young Djemba-Djemba was earning £75,000 at the Red Devils but somehow went bankrupt after reportedly owning more than 10 SUVs. It’s easy for players to fall into the trap of trying to keep up with all the designer clout.

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