THEY make more money in one day than most of us will all year.
But for cash-flush football stars looking to invest their millions in creative ways, fortune doesn’t always favour the brave.
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This week, we revealed how Gary Neville‘s Michelin-star restaurant, The Man Behind the Curtain, has become his latest business flop.
The Leeds eatery – run by chef Micheal O’Hare – has gone into liquidation with debts reported at £1 million, including £519,000 owed in taxes.
It’s a disappointing result for the former Man United ace, who has had more hits than misses with his business ventures, allowing him to build up a £100million empire
But Gary – who even appeared as a guest Dragon on Dragons’ Den earlier this year – is far from alone when it comes to footballers and financial disasters.
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From a former Arsenal star who FORGOT he had bought a £1.2million home and saw it overrun by drug dealers, to an ex-Chelsea ace swindled in a multi-million pound betting scheme, we look at some of the game’s biggest cautionary tales.
Tellytubby eco-home nightmare
Neville’s kitchen nightmare isn’t his first setback. He also made a disastrous business decision in 2010, when he bought a plot of land to build an £8million eco-house.
The Sky Sports pundit was planning a futuristic carbon-neutral mansion with its own 130ft wind turbine on, to sit in Harwood, Greater Manchester.
The house would be built into the ground with a grassy roof fitted with solar panels.
The two-storey home would have an open plan kitchen and living room downstairs, plus five bedrooms, as well as a fitness suite, plant room and double garage for bikes and cars.
Neighbours said the planned house resembled the one in children’s TV show Teletubbies, but after a long battle with them, Neville eventually got the green light to go ahead in 2012.
However, the house was never built, and by 2020, he was struggling to sell the 8,000 square foot site – with his original eco-friendly plans included in the price.
Eventually, he was forced to slash the £650,000 asking price by a quarter to £500,000.
Nightclub turned lapdancing joint
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Ex-Celtic and Hearts defender Stephane Mahe hooked up with former team-mate and fellow countryman Stephane Bonnes for a step into the business world in 2002, when he plunged £400,000 into a nightclub near Glasgow’s Charing Cross.
But it was over even quicker than his two-year spell with the Hoops.
The pair opened Seventh Heaven, hoping to lure 1,300 revellers to the venue each weekend – including fellow pros and their Wags.
Instead they managed just 50 punters some nights.
With debts reported at the time to be close to half a million pounds, the doors were quickly closed, less than half a year after the business kicked off.
Seventh Heaven was soon re-opened as a lapdancing club and the new owners quickly struck up a sponsorship deal with Airdrie United chairman Jim Ballantyne, who joked he was bringing “sexy football” to the club.
Pitch-side hoardings at the New Broomfield ground described the venue as “The Chairman’s Choice”.
Betting swindle
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In 2014, former Chelsea and England striker Chris Sutton was declared bankrupt after being caught in a spread betting foreign currency scam.
Sutton and his wife Samantha both invested £50,000 each after his former financial adviser Simon Grint assured him he would make a “good return”.
But the investment was part of a multi-million-pound fraud scheme, for which Grint was jailed in 2013.
In a statement released at the time, ex-Celtic forward Sutton said: “During the investment period, I was led to believe that I was making a profit on the investment.
“However, I now realise that I was not.”
He also told the Daily Record: “I’ve been given bad financial advice.”
Forgotten mansion overrun by drug lords
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Former Arsenal player Jermaine Pennant declared himself bankrupt last year, having run up debts of around £1million.
Describing himself as “financially illiterate,” he revealed how he squandered around £10million during his career.
The former Liverpool winger splashed out on a fleet of supercars, homes, five-star holidays abroad and once paid a £25,000 bar bill on a lads’ break in Las Vegas.
He told The Sun: “In all honesty, I could have been a billionaire and still f***ed it up. I have made so many mistakes but I did not know how to deal with things and would not think of the consequences of my actions.”
Pennant even bought a £1.2million six-bedroom mansion in Cheshire but later forgot he owned it – although he was still paying the interest-only mortgage on it.
When he moved to Spain he left it empty, but it was later occupied by a drugs gang who caused a fire at the property.
Pennant admitted: “I bought houses but never spoke to an estate agent and had mortgages that I did not know about.
“I took bad advice from bad people and just lived day to day.
“There was a fixer who arranged things for me — but now I realise he swindled me out of money.
“He advised me to buy the house in Hale for well over the odds and then to do a load of building work on it. But I wasn’t paying the builders, I was paying him.”
£5 left in the bank
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In 2018, Ronaldinho was reported to have just £5 in his bank account despite owing a massive £1.75million.
The Brazil legend was fined heavily for illegal construction in a protected area in his home country, along with his brother Roberto Assis.
Despite remortgaging the property, Ronaldinho was said to be unable to pay his debt due to the sky-high interest rate, and had just £5.24 left in his bank account.
As a result of that, a judge in Brazil ordered Ronaldinho to have his passport seized in a bid to ensure he didn’t flee the country.
Ronaldinho also had his luxury cars and artwork seized by Brazilian officials after he and his brother Roberto de Assis Moreira were chased by officials claiming he owed money for fines levied against his charity.
The former Barcelona and AC Milan star continued to have money problems, and had two of his properties in Brazil seized in 2021, to recoup any money owed by the former footballer.
