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Stupid things footballers do with their millions

Stupid things footballers do with their millions
Stupid things footballers do with their millions

A lot of footballers nowadays use their public profile and their riches for good, as has been seen with the recent example of Manchester United and England striker Marcus Rashford.

But despite his amazing work in fighting child poverty in the UK, which has earned him an MBE and the admiration of the country, does Rashford remain something of an outlier?

Here are some of the stupid things footballers often splash out on with their many millions.

Flashy cars

If you are a multi-millionaire footballer in the Premier League, then buying a fleet of ridiculously expensive cars is one of the easiest ways to waste a huge amount of money.

Last year, Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang treated himself to a truly ludicrous upgrade on his red Ferrari LaFerrari, opting to wrap it in holographic chrome. The car also has his own personal logo on it, presumably to make sure he can find it in a multi-storey car park.

Aubameyang has already made similar moves with other top of the range cars that are in his garage, such as his Lamborghini Aventador and his Lamborghini Huracan Performante.

While Aubameyang is far from the only high-profile player to splash money on flashy cars, he certainly spends a truly massive amount of money on collecting new vehicles.

Other famous cars footballers have bought over the years include Stephen Ireland's amazing pink-trimmed Range Rover and Cristiano Ronaldo's purchase of a limited edition Bugatti Centodieci, which is said to have cost him an incredible £8.5 million.

Gambling addiction

Footballers have a lot of down-time, which can lead to them making very bad decisions. Developing a gambling addiction has happened to a lot of big-name players over the years.

Wayne Rooney was said to have racked up a debt of £700,000 from gambling by the age of just 20, explaining he would place big bets via the phone in order to pass the time on away trips.

Michael Chopra, who played for clubs including Newcastle United, Cardiff City and Sunderland, has said that he lost in the region of £2 million gambling during his career. Chopra said card games on the coach to away games could see up to £30,000 change hands between players.

Perhaps it would be a better move if footballers were to sign up at NoDepositDaily.com, where they can gamble without any risk of losing large chunks of their vast fortunes. Free spins and no deposit bonuses are among the promotions dished up by online casinos these days.

Drugs and alcohol

Like with gambling, lots of footballers have turned to drugs to stave off boredom over the years.

Diego Maradona is probably the most high-profile example of a footballer who struggled to keep his drug use in check during his playing career. The Argentina great, one of the best players ever to play the game, saw his weight balloon as a result of an addiction to cocaine.

Paul Gascoigne, who many fans believed was as talented as Maradona, is another who destroyed his life as a result of his drug use. Gascoigne is said to have spent £2,000 a day on cocaine at the height of his drug addiction, while he has been open about his alcoholism too.

In an interview earlier this year, Gazza said he had forked out £20,000 on an operation he had in Australia to help him to quit drinking and taking drugs.

"You get pellets in your stomach and it makes you feel sick if you have too much. It means you can have a beer or a glass of wine and socialise, but you cannot have any more," he said.

"As soon as you touch drugs or spirits it makes you feel sick. I just want to go and get drunk sometimes, and that's what I have to stop. One drink can be too many, then 50 is not enough."

Not paying their taxes

You would think that footballers could afford to pay their taxes, but many of them seem to think they are above doing so for some reason. Maradona is said to have owed tens of millions of euros from his time in Italy with Serie A and many others have followed in his footsteps.

In his book A Life In Football: My Autobiography, former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright blamed financial advisers for him racking up £2 million in tax debt that he said last year left him "at the complete mercy of the HM Revenue & Customs".

Wright subsequently agreed to appear on reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! - for which he was paid a reported £400,000 fee - in order to clear some of his tax debts.

Last year Ronaldo was fined €18.8 million for tax fraud from a time when he was playing for Real Madrid, while his old rival Lionel Messi has also fallen foul of similar rules.

The Barcelona icon was given a 21-month prison sentence for tax fraud but this was later cut to a fine, showing even the very best footballers can do stupid things with their millions.

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