Riches to Rags: Millionaire footballers who lose everything

[joebloggs]

they should have saved their pennies for a rainy day

At the peak of his career, Lee Hendrie was earning more than £30,000 a week playing for Aston Villa in the Premier League.

He won an England cap and was considered one of the best young English players of the late 1990s, in the same generation as Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard.

But at the age of 35, his days of luxury cars and million-pound houses are well and truly behind him. In January 2012, faced with spiralling debts and repossession, Hendrie was declared bankrupt after twice trying to take his own life.

Hendrie, who is still playing for non-league side Tamworth, has spoken of his dramatic fall from grace and, according to sporting charity XPro, he is just one of a number of footballers facing serious financial problems. The group claims as many as three in five Premier League footballers face bankruptcy within five years of retiring from the game.

Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, disputes these figures, saying it is closer to 10% or 20%, but the fact that many multi-millionaire players fall on hard times is not in question.

It is hard to feel sympathy for footballers, especially when they're happy to showcase their flash lifestyle, but Hendrie's story is an interesting one.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21790728

[Ako Si Jamie]

Met him up Villa Park some years ago while we were going to watch a game in the boxes.

Nice enough bloke but a bit of a lad, and evidently not very good with money.

[Dedworth]

...... he's been going off the rails for years

This is from 2003 and refers to him writing off a £70k porsche 3 years earlier

http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-1...nk-drive-shame

[Arthur Little]

...... he's been going off the rails for years

Sadly ... he isn't the first - NOR, is he likely to be the last - of a modern breed of sportsmen who, due to an immature false sense of security, fail to keep up the pretence associated with the hectic lifestyles they've created for themselves.