the year is 2018 a man goes into a pub orders a beer and watches his beloved Arsenal play Everton Arsenal win 2-n he does not raise his gloss when anything exciting happens he does not speak to anyone and he wears a large hoodie the entire match the reason he was there he couldn't afford the subscription for Sky Sports that man was Emanuel abou former Arsenal Defender beloved Arsenal Defender at that this man is estimated to have made over 20 million over his career he only retired in 2016 2 years prior it's a tragedy but it's
not an isolated incident we've all heard it before pro athlet has given tens of millions of dollars pounds Euros whatever over a period of 10 or 15 years or so but only a few years after said athlete retires he's filing for bankruptcy for one reason or another it's a fact that continues to Boggle the minds of a lots of FS fans and non-fans alike in 2009 Sports Illustrated released an article on the phenomena of retired player financial management in it they stated that through research they found that 78% of former NFL players have either gone
bankrupt or are under some sort of financial distress within 2 years of retiring do you know how insane that is divorce and being jobless afterwards was cited as the main causes closer to the topic at hand footballers that is I found a 2018 study conducted by Dr Mato Balo of the University of ANP on the financial circumstances of professional footballers after 102 players from the Belgian first division was surveyed research showed that almost one in four players were actively struggling with financial problems clubs are aware of this and seem to be doing what they can
but as you can imagine there is only so much they can do in this video I wanted to do two things one really dive into into some research pertaining to why athletes tend to squander their millions and two look at some examples of high-profile and maybe some not so high-profile players that have been affected by this yo what is going on everyone hope you're all doing well I'm T here welcome back to the Channel first things first I just want to put a disclaimer here we never truly know the full extent of the truth when
we hear about players reportedly being bankrupt or losing all their fortunes same way we never know what someone's net worth is Forbes and all of those online platforms that claim they know they don't do you guys remember asan maybe might only remember him for his missed penalty against Uruguay in the 2010 World Cup quarterfinals a truly iconic moment in time well back in 2018 there were rampid reports of him having lost everything he played for 18 years for clubs all around the world and was once one of the highest paid players on the planet earning
a reported 2 £30,000 per week from Shanghai Port during the Boom in Chinese Super League Mega spending he's apparently tried his hand at several businesses went through divorce and seems to be the classic tale of a bankrupt athlete right I mean at one point he apparently only had 600 left in the bank yikes but maybe not yikes we all have to stop and ask ourselves an important question where are we getting all of this information from the mirror and the Daily Mail I mean these guys are known to make stories up from time to time
and xan's response to all of this at the time this tweet who knows what's true and what isn't I mean the same goes for reported salaries too have any of you seen an actual football contract or a player's bank account Ronaldinho reportedly squandered $100 million earned over his career from playing and endorsements due to poor spending habits and failed Investments based on what we see in the news all the time it doesn't sound outlandish but again who knows knows I also want to preface that this video wasn't made to dunk on people that have had
their lives upended if what we see in the newspapers is true about how much money these guys lose it's no laughing matter that's pretty serious I mean I might make jokes from time to time in this video but only because my car declined when I took a girl out for McDonald's once when I was in high school if I didn't have the bad back my life could have been different trust me bro so let's go into detail about some of the m reasons that former players even active players end up like this heck John Anisa
was declared bankrupt in 2007 while he was still a Liverpool player that same year Liverpool played in the Champions League final and it was only two years after he helped Liverpool complete the miracle of eastanbul more on him a bit later first up postretirement planning Post sports retirement planning is a concept that's foreign to the vast majority of us mostly because the majority of professional athletes have a very small earning window and most of them are retired by the time they're 30 regardless of if you're in a white or blue collar profession most of us
will probably only be starting to step into senior roles by then plus there is a 30-year plus career path still in store but that just might be where the problem lies there is no set post-retirement career path for someone that was once a professional athletes for a lot of these guys they haven't been taught anything but bow their entire life they may be encouraged to seek alternative Endeavors in preparation while they are still playing but how many of you are going to take an interest in anything else if your main occupation is netting you upwards
of £60,000 per week especially if it's the only thing you've ever really done in life are you really going to be motivated to try anything new this article was written about 5 Years Ago by the way according to statista last season at Manchester United the average base salary was 7.2 million per season per player roughly 135k per week this season Marcus rashford sits on 375k per week and still refuses to track back it's unbelievable the players at the top like rashford for example will probably always be fine they're so well known they'll probably be taken
care of for the rest of their lives but we also have to remember that not everyone is a top top earner for every 72 million EUR per year killing MBA there is a struggling semipro Champion night National brick ler clubs are Savvy to these post-retirement issues and offer the early career financial planning that you'd expect they should from a young age but not everyone is inclined to listen to them and then of course we have players on Lower Wagers that undoubtedly participate in the age- old tradition of keeping up with pure spending we'll dive into
that later but that's a pretty huge problem too so at the ripe old age of 30 to 35 when you've been earning $60,000 per week and spending roughly £60,000 per week for almost a decade when the checks all of a sudden stop coming in do you think your Barber is going to answer your calls having said that the opportunities for these guys are endless right some players become managers some become pundits some Club CEOs many start and run lucrative businesses with their career earnings some even enter the WWE but some don't do anything at all
but they live and spend like they do family and divorce I think these two should be in the same category going back to the quoted study from the intro from the Belgian League roughly 40% of players said that they provide financial support to extended family outside of children and spouses and 25% completely support friends financially truth be told the inspiration of this video actually came from a portion of Rio ferdinand's 5 podcast which aired on the 16th of November 2023 three on the show he had Chelsea and Nigeria Legend Mikel John Obi on they spoke
briefly about player finances and responsibilities but made special reference to the family expectations that a player experiences when they make it big this is something I don't think we speak a lot about when you come from Africa when you make money it's not your money you know and your sisters they go off and they get married to some guy you know who just wants to get M into job's family because then my life is sorted family back home making all sorts of claims as not uncommon among African players a lot of whom come from tough
backgrounds before moving to Europe and making it big Victor riman was recently accused of cheating his brother-in-law out of a cool half a million USD apparently this was for commission for his role in osan's transfer from Le to Napoli Emanuel adabor claims that his brother held him at knife points over money when he was playing at Monaco however we all need to note that remittance or sending money back home is a global phenomenon it's nowhere near an African thing according to the World Bank for the calendar year of 2022 remittance income sent back to the
East and asia-pacific regions sold to roughly 134 billion USD Europe and Central Asia sat at $72 billion and subsaharan Africa came in at $53 billion if you come from poverty in the underbelly of London Glasgow New York buenos Iris Helsinki Tokyo Johannesburg Etc and Etc you will have friends and family that likely think they are owed something due to your success and who knows maybe they are I mean let's be real it does take a village to raise a child maybe there were people that were taking you to and from practice maybe there were people
that were protecting you against going into a life of crime you know that's a pretty drastic example but it's true maybe those people deserve to be supported or helped out because of what they did for you early on but when those same people believe that family member or a player in this example is responsible for taking care of them for the rest of their lives and financially supporting them that can become a bit of a problem divorce is the reason that a lot of people will likely be familiar with from the tabloids it does seem
that this is maybe the most common reason for players losing at all but that might be because it's a lot easier to sensationalize a messy divorce than just about anything else Emanuel abou is the player we started this whole thing off with how did he lose it all you ask divorce wz Brown formerly of Manchester United two-time Champions League winner reportedly lost a ton to divorce tiry hry Ryan Giggs both players that have reportedly gone through messy divorces costing tens of millions depending on who you believe but again the top guys they'll likely always be
fine I'd imagine and not every divorce or broken relationship has the same result next up is loneliness boredom and anxiety probably the most overlooked reason by fans you're an extremely high income earner but that comes with sacrifices you're a club asset you can't go clubbing you can't drink you can't ski unless you're Manuel Noya you have a bedtime you're not allowed to pee in public unless you're Bernard Silva Berard Silva what are you doing my friend meanwhile us normies are partying eating food that they won't be allowed to eat and living without the restrictions that
come with being a pro your life is full of rigid routines where's the rush where's the excitement what are you going to do the money is obviously great but if you know anything about self-actualization you'll know that countless Studies have been done and confirmed that once your needs have been secured money doesn't always equates to happiness so you're rich and famous yes but you're also young meaning that the doubts and anxieties that other young people have you have them too you might be surrounded by tons of people but you also might be extremely lonely only
because of how few people can actually relate to you and your position and experiences fans see you and your teammates hugging and celebrating on TV but behind the cameras for all we know you guys are nothing but work colleagues in fact you might not like each other at all when you actually think about it you realize that football teams are just combinations of people from all sorts of walks of life you know continents regions ethnicities religions some people just don't yel so what do some players do to get that rush and relief dist stress they
Gamble and they drink gambling is strictly prohibited for pro athletes but it's pretty easy for them to do it without being caught especially in the digital age when anyone can be anonymous online heck you could end up playing Jaden sancha an ultimate team a form of gambling in itself gambling can start with plain boredom during away away game Journeys just some cards with the lads but it can quickly work its way up to being something drastic Paul meren former Arsenal and Aston star lost7 million through his gambling addiction at the peak of his career Chris
Sutton former Premier League winner with Blackburn had a huge problem himself racking up tens of thousands in debt my mom took control of my income for a time and her solution was pretty drastic she gave me £10 a day to live on with no more access to cash excess of drinking is an obvious trap that triggers the downfall of an athlete but it seems that in more cases that we may know the problem never surfaces in 2022 Wayne Rooney admitted to abusing alcohol at the peak of his career pressures laid upon him from a very
young age were huge according to him his problems persisted until his first son was born in 2009 from 2004 to 2013 is the man was an absolute Menace on the pitch who would have thought a lot of former players have talked about how football is a parh environment often unsupportive of mental health issues because everyone's expected to be madly loneliness and isolation should come as no surprise according to Thief Pro in 2015 38% of current professionals and 35% of former professionals reported experiencing feelings of depression or anxiety at some stage few speak up and I
honestly believe that those numbers are far too low poor Investments and bad luck back to John hona who we mentioned earlier on he went bankrupt in 2007 after A3 million pound fraud investigation originating from a native Norway from what it seems it involved how his earnings were invested by a former agent who he cut loose in 2005 I couldn't gather much information about this case as I imagine it was settled outside of the public eye but who knows what happened even further to that him or one of the many companies that he's been involved in
have since been declared bankrupt on numerous occasions he was once also sued by an ex-wife for illegally draining the college fund account for one of his children make of that what you will back to the first part there a lot of his companies weren't doing too well failed Investments you know they say when you make millions you should invest a significant portion of it diversely but as we all know there are good Investments and there are bad Investments I keep coming back to this point but it's for a good reason if you're a pro football
player then you've played football your entire life and nothing else how are you going to know the difference between a good and a bad investment there are people that have been in the finance Community for years decades EXP they themselves can't tell the difference you know and what happens when someone that you think you can trust comes to you with these investment ideas the final one we're going to talk about here is the most obvious one the one that we are all guilty of regardless of the size of your pay packet overspending roughly 40% of
employees in the UK live paycheck to paycheck roughly 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck these figures run across the board too it's not just just the single mother of four that has to work three jobs in an impoverished area it's also the multi6 figure Finance bro in his mid-30s that likes to spend and forget I could pull these figures out all day about how they reflect across the world but I'm pretty sure you guys get the idea if this is happening to all of us why would you think it wouldn't happen to pro ballers
and athletes we're all humans at the end of the day our nature doesn't discriminate by race origin gender and most relevant to this piece socio economic class another really interesting thesis I came across looked into the monetization of social relations between footballers published in 2015 in it current and former professional footballers with exposure to the four fully professional leagues in England were interviewed and questioned about their financial viewpoints one question they were posed related to outward showings of wealth I.E flexing an anonymous player involved in the study said I think it's important when you first
sign for a club to make that first impression that you are a good player an easy way to do that is your clothes car and stuff like that because if you have decent gear then you have made a bit of money so it seems that in the player community there is a feeling that what you spend and how you look equates to your value as a teammate and as an asset peer pressure that could lead to grave Financial consequences basically players look to impress other players with extensive showings of wealth before they even show what
they can do on the training pitch that is crazy greme L the author of this thesis is a former Scottish Pro footballer that played for teams like Tamworth and York City between 2003 and 2013 because of his standing as a former pro he was able to gain access to 34 past and present players for the study a lot of them high-profile too and even considering that he received a very high rejection rate as over 100 letters were sent to clubs and media Outlets calling for volunteers law goes on to state that much like normal society
discussions around wages and pay packets are mostly Taboo in dressing rooms don't believe everything you read in the papers because from what it seems players themselves aren't always sure what their own teammates are earning all of this seems to be part of a toxic Loop involving players thinking that because the media says they have tons of money they have to look the part even when it's not the case for all of the reasons stated in this video does start to make a bit of sense why these players tend to earn and lose generational wealth in
the matter of a couple of years I mean it is lunacy to you and me it is lunacy but you you kind of have to understand right at least try and understand also don't get me wrong there are more than plenty success stories Cristiano Ronaldo is a Serial entrepreneur Michael Jordan is a billionaire but for every CR7 and MJ there is a Ronaldinho and alen Iverson I don't have the stats for every sport but I imagine there are many of the latter like I said the Premier League and the PFA do give teachings on financial
literacy and planning to Youth and Reserve players it's part and parcel with media training diversity training mental and emotional well-being lectures and everything in between clubs expose players to these learnings but ultimately at the end of the day it's up to the player themselves to to decide what to do with their future and what to do with their money you can't force someone to invest more than you can't force someone to watch jutu kaisen it's a great show you should watch it in the Premier League wealth management firms such as flm seem to be responsible
for the section of player teaching at the root of it Financial advice is something that requires an unbelievable amount of trust which is why a lot of players employ their own family members as their financial advisers this can be a good thing or a bad thing who's to say that the adviser family or not will have the correct intentions morals and ethics it's a very very tricky position to be in it's like winning the lotto everyone's telling you what to do with your money and everyone's telling you that they have your best interest at heart
who's telling the truth closing this all off if the numbers quoted in the news are even close to the real numbers these guys are in a completely different Stratosphere of earning when they are active in 2020 the UK office of national statistics claimed that the average lifetime earnings of Any Given person in the UK is 566,000 it would take the average Premier League player about 9 weeks to earn that on base salary alone wild but on that note It's always important to remember that the higher you are the more devastating the potential fall is in
the words of Ben Smith head of flm sports an entertainment desk if you are introduced to a footballer at 25 who is already earning 00,000 a week and tell them to start getting into sensible habits when they're already used to having that money and a certain lifestyle well that's too late and there we have it let me know what you guys think about the crazy numbers and the state of player pay feel free to follow the socials feel free to subscribe that's all for me today hope you guys enjoyed hope you're having a great day
cheers and I will catch you in the next one [Music] a
