Craig Bellamy, a former Wales and Manchester City player, has revealed how he lost his entire fortune and is now declared bankrupt by the British government.
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According to the current Burnley assistant coach, his financial ruin is the result of a series of failed investments made on his behalf because he entrusted his money to the wrong people.
Manchester City signed Craig Bellamy from West Ham in 2009 for a reported £14 million, which included a £12 million upfront payment and a £2 million in add-ons. He was paid £85,000 per week at the club.
Bellamy claims he does not drink and has never gambled, but he has lost everything and his battle with bankruptcy is “like being on Death Row.”
He warns young players in an article published in Sports Mail on Saturday, April 1;
See the excerpts below.
He no longer owns any property. He doesn’t have a car. He is unable to own a car. He is now officially bankrupt, and while this provides some relief, he is also keen that his situation serves as a warning to today’s young footballers, who earn even more than he did and have unscrupulous hucksters and ruthless opportunists circling them just as they once did him.
‘I’ve been on Death Row for the last five or six years, just waiting for someone to let me out,’ says Bellamy. I’ve been waiting for someone to open the cell door and say, “Today’s the day.” It’s the feeling of not being able to anticipate anything. I can’t get a mortgage despite all of my earnings. I have no financial future. That hurt a lot. I can’t claim anything. Everything has vanished.
‘My life has been halted. I’m not a tax evader, but I was naive, and the HMRC has been pursuing me for unpaid tax for quite some time. Everything I owned was taken from me. If you get the wrong people to advise you, everything bleeds and dwindles. It’s gotten to the point where declaring bankruptcy is a relief. It means I can start living again.
I don’t own a home, a car, or a mortgage.
‘I’m sure some people will think I squandered all my money on drinking, gambling, or drugs. No, I haven’t. I can be quiet where you won’t hear from me, but I’m not going to the pub. I have never used drugs since I was a child. I’m not a gambler. I’ve never gambled before. This makes no sense to me. But, unfortunately, I have gambled on people.’
‘I want this to serve as a warning to other players,’ Bellamy says. ‘Check everything, and make sure the people advising you are properly licenced. It’s the Wild West if they’re not regulated. Get independent people to audit your work, which is the equivalent of getting a second opinion. I grew up in a footballing family where everything was done for you. Each and every bill. The club took care of everything for me, no matter where I was. That, in my opinion, is incorrect.
‘It exposes you too much. It is beneficial for players to have their own responsibilities because the club will not exist forever. You’ll finish your career while still being a young man, and who will pay your bills when you’re done? You will have to learn to survive. You will have to live in the real world.
‘My biggest fear as a young player starting out at Norwich was money. It was always a source of concern for me. I didn’t want to have a lot of money but no job. I would give you the entire sum as long as I could keep my job. I used to believe that money was the devil. It would distract me to the point where I’d lose my appetite. It would distract me, causing me to lose my bite and my desire to reach the top.
‘That pursuit of what everyone considers to be success is not mine. That chase doesn’t appeal to me. Having nice things is nice, but it is meaningless. I don’t get out of bed for that. I don’t get up in the morning to pursue nice things. In any case, I never felt wealthy. I could afford nice things, but there was no excitement in it for me. I actually thought it was more of a pain in the backside for people to use you for.
‘Everywhere you go, you’re overcharged. You were ripped off everywhere you went. People believe you are a walking cashpoint for them. I felt bad saying “no” when people called for help, so I never did. They no longer call me. You haven’t heard anything from them. Someone I assisted in getting back on their feet was living with me when he ripped me off. We were the best of friends.
‘The idea — which I now think is insane, but when you’re a young kid determined to be a footballer, it seemed reasonable — was for me to take care of my football career and a guy I trusted with my money to take care of the money. “As long as it’s taken care of when I finish football,” I said, “you trust me to do the football and I will trust you with everything else.” It didn’t work out well, to put it mildly. ‘Not for me, at any rate.’
In football, money is sometimes all that is discussed. We define players by how much they earn per week as much as how many goals they score or trophies they win, and Bellamy was no exception during a period when fat contracts were negotiated for him at Newcastle United, West Ham United, and Manchester City. And he was giving away all of his earnings. It felt like there was an infinite pit of it. He was aware that he was giving it away at times. He didn’t always do it.
‘People say footballers should know better, but why should I?’ says Bellamy. I dropped out of school when I was 15 years old. I felt like such a naive, stupid person. I didn’t want to drink or gamble, but if I’d lost money, maybe I’d be kinder to myself. If I had done it to myself, I could start fixing it. Because of this, I don’t trust people. This happens as soon as you trust someone. I knew something wasn’t right, but I didn’t want to face it. I didn’t know how to deal with it. “I’m screwed if I get this wrong,” I thought.
‘I’m fortunate in that I know what I’m doing as a coach. Football-wise, I’m fine. But what if I wasn’t? Imagine if I didn’t want to play football. What would I do? What could I possibly do? What kind of life would I lead? When you fall into a deep depression and begin to consider suicide, that’s when it hits you. I should have been relishing my retirement from the game. All of my injuries, all of my hard work…for what? For people you trusted to take advantage of you?
‘I entertained many dark thoughts. But I realised I needed to let go of my rage because it was making me sick. I am grateful that I never turned to alcohol and that I had close friends who were always there for me. Then, completely unexpectedly, Vincent appears. I hadn’t been prepared to take on anything else because my health was still not good — dark thoughts and dark moments can turn you bad. I wasn’t ready to manage because I needed to first learn to manage myself.
‘I knew I had to get up and keep working,’ she says. Keep going, keep working, and everything will be fine. I knew if I kept working and persevered, something incredible would happen. I was so convinced of it that I brainwashed myself. And now I realise how fortunate I am to be at Burnley, doing something I enjoy and am good at. And now we’re at the top of the league, and I enjoy what I do. And now, after all of this, something incredible is happening.’
