Most Premier League stars go broke
Eurosport
The majority of Premier League footballers are broke within five years of their career ending, a survey has shown.
According to research conducted by XPro, a charity for ex-professional footballers in the UK and Ireland, three in five players blow their fortunes despite the average wage in the league currently being £30,000-a-week.
Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel, former Blackburn captain Colin Hendry and ex-Aston Villa star Lee Hendrie are among the players who have declared for bankruptcy while Fulham’s John Arne Riise and ex-Manchester United pair Keith Gillespie and Eric Djemba-Djemba have also had major financial issues.
What's more, one in three players who are married end up filing for divorce within 12 months of their retirement.
Explaining the figures, XPro chief executive Geoff Scott, who played for Stoke, Leicester and Birmingham, told the Sun on Sunday: "Our database shows three in five players go bankrupt within five years and it coincides with one in three getting divorced within 12 months.
"Often they are advised by the wrong people and, before they know it, their assets have disappeared.
"Even if they manage careers in the media or on the after-dinner circuit, some aren’t aware they need to put money away for the tax man.
"It might sound incredible to normal fans but it can and does happen."
Mark Sands of bankruptcy specialists RSM Tenon confirmed that a number of their clients were footballers: "While earning huge sums they developed expensive tastes and made risky investments," he told the Sun on Sunday.
"When their playing career came to an end they had no second income and their earnings dropped rapidly.
"And as their earnings dropped their expenditure did not. High outgoings, falling incomes, investments failing and high levels of debt used to buy houses and leverage investments combined to bring them down — and bankruptcy ensued."
