I just got to thinking (was watching this commercial) about the studies I’ve read about that describe what happens with American sports stars from poor backgrounds, i.e. many of them go broke despite making millions.
I remember when I was living in France people would always make snarky comments about how poorer minorities weren’t important in Europe unless they could rap or play soccer* (I was there during the riots and protests of 2005-2006). So, many European footballers presumably come from similar backgrounds as American ones (given the country context is different, both regarding country of birth and country where they became famous). I’m just curious if any comparison could be made.
I know a similar argument could be made of the US, but let’s not debate that right now, unless it’s relevant to the answer.
Could you restate your OP into a post with a factual question? Do you have any American and European individuals you could name to illustrate things? Heeey, you don’t mean black people, do you?
I can only think of one who ended up fairly broke, Paul Gascoigne, and that was down to his mental health and alcoholism. The rest get rich and stay rich.
Come to think of it, I can’t immediately think of of any famous European footballers who are from wealthy backgrounds; I’m sure they exist, but they’d be a tiny minority.
Heeey, you’re not reading too much into my question are you? Many of the people I’m talking about do indeed happen to be minorities (not just black), but I’m not attributing their lack of money management skills to their race. I would be willing to bet there are plenty of white people from poor backgrounds who achieve sudden success and end up broke as a result of their not being able to manage their money.
There are studies about this, and I’ll cite them when I get home. I remember hearing a story (I think on NPR) about a year ago about how the NBA or NFL was starting to provide money management lessons due to the disproportionate number of athletes who went broke as soon as they had an injury.
The riots of late 2005 after the two people were killed in the banlieux, then the protests and strikes that shut down the country in spring of 2006 over the CPE (Contrat Premier Embauch, first job contract).
As a general rule they either a) buy ridiculous, tasteless things and end up broke, or b) behave relatively normally, obeying the financial advice they are given, and have a decent life for themselves.
Bear in mind “Europe” is a lot more culturally varied than the States, there’s a big difference between countries. The kind of xenophobic comments you refer to seem to be present in France in the context of sports, partly because they have a lot of players of African descent but who choose their French nationality when it comes to playing international football (because France is a better team than say, Algeria or Senegal). By contrast, in my experience we don’t really have that sentiment at all in the UK - we used to, but nowadays those kind of racist sentiments are not prominent at all. I think they still can be in Spain and Italy: black players still get jeered with “monkey noises” sometimes in Spain, and in Italy there’s a black player called Mario Balotelli, about whom I’ve heard there is a saying, “no true Italian is black”. I don’t know how true that is though.
As far as poor players making a lot of money, in the UK I don’t think it’s common for players to make a lot of money and then blow it all and end up bankrupt. I can’t think of any players that I’ve heard that happening to really - the only one that comes close is the already-mentioned Paul Gascoigne but he seems to have suffered from alcoholism and mental problems more than extravagance. There are plenty of stories and lamentations about young guys from poor backgrounds who suddenly find themselves making millions, and start living outrageous lifestyles and doing outrageous things. But I can’t think of any player who’s been totally ruined by it in the way you’re talking about.
I could see this in the NFL since the average NFL career is so short (I want to say three years is the commonly cited figure). Now, some of that is due to players who just couldn’t hack it from a talent perspective, but those guys always have the Arena League, CFL, etc to fall back on. But a player who suffered a career ending injury before making any serious money I could definitely see falling into hard times. Although in that case it wouldn’t really have anything to do with money management skills, it would just be a matter of fate stripping them of their livelihood.
I don’t think your question itself is out of line or implies any unfair classism, though. I’m white and grew up primarily amongst people who live(d) paycheck to paycheck, and in those circumstances it’s no stretch at all to imply that the idea of developing investment skills never comes into play when you’re having to spend money as fast as you make it just to keep the lights on and put food on the table. I don’t know if you can find a blanket answer to this question in the world of sports, however, simply because the fate of any individual player can vary widely. For instance, the aforementioned guy who suffers a debilitating injury early in his career is probably going to fare worse than someone who had a noteworthy career, and who can usually make money off a broadcasting career or personal appearances even if they do initially mismanage their money.
Misconstrued your earlier post, really sorry about that. From an England international perspective the classic recent example, as already stated, is Paul Gascoigne - a man-child with only poisonous friends to hold on to, imo. He moved up to Scotland to play with Rangers, and that really didn’t help him at all.
• By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.
• Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke.
For reasons I mentioned above, I think those stats would be a lot more useful if they broke down the percentages into the longevity of the players’ careers. For instance, I would think that 78% for the NFL is HUGELY inflated by the scads of players who played for only a year or two at minimum rookie salary. The use of the term “retired” is misleading and not really that well defined: ie. is a player considered “retired” if he gets a job in another league or for the purposes of the study was it enough that they just never played in the NFL again?
That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Looking back, it was thesetwo NPR stories that I was thinking of, both of which are talking about the SI story.
The obvious comparison is lottery winners, but don’t you think it’s a bit of an exaggeration to say that “anyone who comes into money” will act that way?
The reason I’m trying to make the comparison between European and American sports stars is simply a thought experiment re: the greater American focus on consumption/consumerism. [NOTE: This is not open to debate in this thread. Start a great debate thread about it if you want. If you don’t, I might later. Let’s be clear, I’m not saying that different outcomes – if we do find that there does appear to be a difference – proves that it’s because of such cultural differences.] So, I guess looking at lottery winners in Europe would work too.
Those are not great statistics to work with though, because they don’t explain who those players are or why they go bankrupt. Are they guys who earned millions of dollars and squandered it all? Or are they poor guys who grew up with nothing, took a shot at the NFL or NBA for a season, then got dropped or injured and, having no other skills to fall back on, faded back into nothing again? I suspect a lot of them will be the latter.
If this is all you’re wondering, I can tell you that it’s definitely not the reason. Football players here in the UK live extravagantly: they buy Ferraris and crash them, they’ll blow thousands of dollars in nightclubs on weekends, they throw $3,000-per-head Christmas parties in casinos, etc, etc. The top soccer players over here are about as driven by consumerism as is possible, so if there is a difference between the incidence of bankruptcy amongst former European soccer players and former NFL or NBA players, it’s not because they differ in their ‘consumer culture’.