Given how many footballers are incredibly overpaid, sometimes we don’t think about how much they plough through their money and see their fortunes disappear faster than Chris Coleman’s tenure with Wales. Naturally, as the career of a footballer declines, the options are to either go into managing or start investing. But many footballers and their associates have made some real messes as far as investments are concerned, so let’s have a look at some of the big ones.
Terry Venables
The former Tottenham and England manager had a football fund that was given a red card back in November 2014. Terry teamed up with Hugo Ribeiro, Michael Black, and John Mitchell to launch the Football Talent Fund. The goal was to invest in the development of young players, but the Anguilla financial services commission stopped the fund after publishing a warning that it has never been licensed to carry out business from the Caribbean islands.
Keith Gillespie
This is arguably one of the saddest stories in football. While playing for Manchester United and later Newcastle, he developed a gambling and alcohol addiction. He admitted in 2013 to betting more than $150,000 a day on horses. He attempted to make wise decisions in property investment, but most of his $10 million disappeared. Property investment has been a mainstay for lots of sports stars, and places like Sports Afield Trophy Properties certainly delivers an appealing name for investors in sports.
Unfortunately, Gillespie’s tale hasn’t come with a happy ending. He declared bankruptcy in 2010, and released an autobiography in 2013 called How Not To Be A Football Millionaire, detailing his rags to riches to rags again tale.
Celestine Babayaro
Another one for the bankruptcy pile, this former Chelsea and Newcastle United player filed for bankruptcy in 2011. In fact, he was so behind on his payments that creditors put ads in newspapers trying to locate him so we could pay. And, as he was unable to, bankruptcy soon followed. The extravagant lifestyle he led included millions being spent on luxury cars and mansions, but what would you expect from a millionaire footballer?
Alan Hansen
The famous pundit and former Scottish player fell foul of his football fund in 2002 after poor performance. He was brought in as an adviser for the Football Investment Fund in 1997, and due to internal politics, the fund managers thought football to be too difficult a brief to keep up, and Hansen was let go as an advisor.
David Beckham
After selling the photos of his wedding to Posh Spice for two million dollars, the coupled used the money to buy an 11 million dollar mansion. However, it ended up being a bit small for them, so he sold it and purchased an 80 million dollar mansion. This was complete with a movie theatre, car garage (underground, no less), and massage rooms, complete with staff!
It’s a hard life, isn’t it?