Top footballers who went broke after earning millions

Football has become more a game of luxury than mere entertainment. The business side of the sport has grown such that critics argue team owners and football authorities do not care about footballers’ health which is why they pile up fixtures to milk the best out of the players. This may be true but even with its luxury, some top footballers fell from the top to rock bottom after spending decades earning millions in the sport.

Today, our lenses switch to list some of the top footballers who failed to maintain their high-level status despite earning millions during their careers. There are various reasons that some of these top guys went broke with some falling to costly divorces while others suffered broke bad investments or gambling; the reasons are diverse.

So we begin our list of top footballers with…

David James

David Benjamin James MBE is a former English footballer who played for many years at the top level. The goalkeeper played for eight different clubs in England before moving to Iceland at the tail end of his career and finally, India, where he hung his boots after more than 20 years in the sport. Starting at Watford, David James made over 80 appearances before moving to Liverpool where he made at least 200 league appearances. His career took him to Aston Villa, West Ham United, Manchester City, Bristol City and AFC Bournemouth in England. He joined IBV in 2013 and Kerala Blasters in 2014 where he acted as player-manager.

Apart from making over 800 appearances for clubs, David James made 53 appearances for the England National Team. He earned an estimated  £20 million from his footballing career and owned several properties. Notably, James also had a lucrative modelling contract with Armani with whom he modelled. He engaged in notable charity projects and was a global ambassador for Special Olympics. The David James Foundation also focused extensive efforts towards helping Malawi maize farmers develop new technologies to improve production.

However, in 2014, the court declared David James bankrupt. It seems the root cause of his downfall was his divorce from his wife, Tanya, in 2005 which saw his debt begin to build up. It forced him to auction most of his football memorabilia in 2014 to try to raise money. Despite his financial troubles, David James has remained active in charity and appeared for AFC Hutwood against Madeinheath United in the City of Southampton Sunday Football League Division One. The club donated football boots to Football Rebooted charity of which he was an ambassador. He has also been active in the media, appearing in many celebrity reality shows in England.

Lee Hendrie

Lee Andrew Hendrie is a former English footballer who notably played for Aston Villa between 1994 and 2004. His career took him to more than 10 different clubs including non-league clubs where he played for Daventry Town and Redditch United. Apart from those clubs that came towards the tail end of his career, he played for Brighton and Hove Albion, Leicester City, Blackpool, Stock City and Sheffield United. He made over 400 league appearances and turned out once for the Three Lions.

In 2o12, Lee Hendrie was declared bankrupt by British authorities. The former Aston Villa midfielder tried to take his life on two occasions during that time. When he appeared on the ITV show Harry’s Heroes, he was widely praised for opening up on his struggles with mental health. That is how Lee Hendrie finds himself among our list of top footballers who went broke after earning millions.

Emmanuel Eboue

Former Ivorian international Emmanuel Eboue who was not declared bankrupt by the authorities, confessed to being broke and homeless in 2017. Emmanuel Eboue started in his home country with ASEC Mimosa before transferring to Beveren in Belgium. But that somehow also marked the start of what would spell his financial doom despite the move offering him better pay and a promised future financial security. Eboue married a Belgian woman before moving to Arsenal in 2004 and spent seven years at the London club. He later starred for Galatasaray before ending his career at Sunderland. With 79 caps for the Ivory Coast national team, Emmanuel Eboue was a household name in football.

His troubles started when he moved to Arsenal and was banned for one year from all football-related activities for failing to pay an agent. He was released in 2016 by the club without making a single appearance. He tried to join other clubs but the deals could not go through due to some issues.

Eboue revealed that he was broke as a result of his divorce from his wife and bad investments which were under the control of his ex-wife. He said was poor and could not continue to retain a lawyer to fight for his properties. Adding that he was now homeless and sometimes slept at friends’ houses. Eboue disclosed that he is even scared to live in the house he bought with his money.

“I am in the house but I am scared. Because I don’t know what time the police will come. Sometimes I shut off the lights because I don’t want people to know that I am inside. I put everything behind the door.

“My own house. I suffered to buy my house but I am now scared,” adding, “I am not going to sell my clothes or sell what I have. I will fight until the end because it is not fair.”

When he made known his financial struggles, Galatasaray offered him a coaching role with their U-14 side. In 2019, Emmanuel Eboue revealed he was struggling with mental health. So Emmanuel Eboue, unfortunately through no fault of his has found himself in our list of top footballers who went broke after earning millions.

The good news is that Eboue made some investments in his home country of Ivory Coast. He said in an interview with Empire FM in Takoradi that he lost everything in England but he returned to Ivory Coast to live with what he had.

“When they [court] said that, I was very disappointed. To be honest, for the first time, I was very down but after that, I prayed and forgot about all of that. So after that, I left and returned back to Africa. I have my own properties in Africa and so I live with that.

“When I hear people say Emmanuel Eboue lost everything, I laugh. I have properties in Ghana, I have properties in my home country [Ivory Coast]. I live very comfortably and I thank God. So when people keep talking and say Emmanuel Eboue doesn’t have anything, he can’t eat, doesn’t have a place to stay, it’s not true.”

Eric Djemba-Djemba

Eric Daniel Djemba-Djemba is a former Cameroonian international who played for Manchester United, Aston Villa and Burnley in England. He played for clubs in Qatar, Denmark, Serbia, Scotland and Indonesia among others. So after a well-traveled career that spans over 10 years, 34 caps for Cameroon and an AFCON winners medal, you would expect that life after football would be good for him.

But even before Eric retired from football, he was declared bankrupt. The Cameroon international was declared bankrupt in 2007 during the time he was transferred from Manchester United to Aston Villa. According to his agent, Eric was reckless with money and operated many bank accounts which enabled him to take so much loans which became a burden for him.

Christophe Mongai claimed that Eric despite earning at least £75,000 a month at Manchester United, most of it went to loan repayments. He said the midfielder owned 10 4x4s at one point in his life and operated 30 bank accounts which showed how reckless he was with money. To compound his woes, Eric who was married with four kids went through a divorce. You may think £75,000 is nothing if you compare it to the current salaries of top footballers but back then it was a huge fortune.

Royston Drenthe

Royston Ricky Drenthe is a former Real Madrid and Dutch winger who played professional football for 18 years before retiring in 2023. His career highlights include a 5-year spell with Spanish giants Real Madrid with whom he won La Liga. He also turned out for English sides Everton and Reading FC as well as clubs in Russia, Turkey and his home country, Netherlands.

Royston began his professional career at Feyenoord, playing two seasons before moving to Real Madrid for five seasons with loans in between. The former Dutch international made one outing for the Netherlands national team but played over 20 matches for the youth side, winning the European U-21 Championship.

In 2020, a court in Breda slapped Royston Drenthe with bankruptcy. Reacting to the court order, Royston said, “I don’t know the ins and outs and I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but if this is what I think it is, it’s not that important.

“I’m always under a magnifying glass, but it will be resolved as it should.”

It was reported that he lost £3.2 million. But Drenthe whose sometimes was plagued with controversies didn’t seem too much disturbed. Royston ventured into rap music, acting and TV punditry. He opened a fashion shop sometime during his playing career and after retirement ventured into healthcare.

After deciding to work in healthcare, he said his family has always worked in the industry.

“My entire family has always been in care. Aunt Helen is a nurse. My mother and aunt work in healthcare. A few years ago I already thought: ‘Why don’t I also do training and courses and see what that does to me?'” he told NOS.

Royston Drenthe stated that he found happiness in healthcare, having earlier admitted to making bad decisions during the early days of his career. He took up a job in a dementia ward in healthcare though he said he would love to have another year more of football before finally saying goodbye to the sport.

We cannot tell how Royston Drenthe lost the millions and he is probably making good of life now having changed careers but he completes our list today of top footballers who went broke after earning millions.

These are just a few of the players we profiled today but the list is far from being complete. Many other top footballers are in similar or even worse situations than those who appear on this list. Which top footballers did we miss out on that you think we should add in our next episode?

Disclaimer: the list does not intend to disrespect their former stars but because they publicly shared their information, we feel we could help others take clues from their mistakes by sharing their stories. So if you are reading or have read this story, take the positives from it. Our respect for these stars remains optimum and we expect all our readers to do the same.