👔 How These Three Footballers are Building Wealth Post-Retirement

Welcome to all the new joiners to this newsletter. Before we dive in, lets discuss the crazy situation happening at Chelsea currently.

Todd Boehly and his compadres at Clearlake Capital do not like each other and want to buy each other out.

Problem being neither of them want to sell their stake in the club!

In the middle of this, the CEO of Chelsea resigned four days ago and has been replaced by Jason Gannon the current Chelsea COO.

As a United fan I am loving what I am reading over there but as a fan of football I am not sure I have ever seen two owning parties have their relationship completely disintegrate this quickly. Fortunately for Chelsea this happened in the middle of an international gameweek so there has been muted media focus.

From here there is only one outcome. There will be a game of chicken to see who yields first. If Boehly wins he will have to find a lot of money to become the majority owner. If Clearlake win will Boehly make a profit on his investment? It’s truly Fascinating stuff and a story I will pay very close attention to!

Alas, today we discuss something that will continue to fascinate me as I build this platform.

The paths that athletes choose to take after they embark on retirement.

One of the most popular shortform videos I ever created was detailing how some of our favourite athletes like Wes Brown, David James and Paul Merson all filed for bankruptcy within five years of retiring from football. Those bankruptcies were filed despite making many millions in their careers.

I think the frequency of bankruptcies will diminish through each generation. This will happen for a few reasons:

1. Athletes make so much more money now than they ever did previously

2. Financial literacy is culturally more accepted than it ever has been

3. Education and access to information is greater than it ever has been also

Also with the growing nature of social media and podcasting there are simply far more jobs available to athletes after retiring creating more ways to leverage their skillset.

So with that in mind see three footballers currently applying their post retirement trade:

- Nacho Monreal (Ex-Arsenal and Osasuna): Player Agent, Global Ases

Nacho and a team of his contemporaries run Global Ases, an agency representing a string of Spanish players across the leagues in Spain.

The most notable signing they have under their belt is Jesus Arejo, the current Osasuna first-choice right back. Transkfermarkt currently have him valued at €7.5m in value.

Monreal is an interesting one where I imagine he probably didn’t make enough to never have to work again. He was however, loved by the Arsenal faithful so good to see him putting his network to good use in his next chapter.

- Demba Ba: Director of Football, USL Dunkerque

Here’s one I didnt expect. Demba Ba is the new Director of Football at Ligue 2 side USL Dunkerque.

I don’t know of many black men in leadership positions in football and I certainly didn’t expect Demba Ba to be one either so shoutout for him for taking up the mantle. He has not been there that long so it remains to be seen how this fares for him but his presence there now has me passively checking their results to see if he can inspire success!

Dunkerque are currently 14th in Ligue 2.

- Louis Saha: CEO and Founder, Axis Stars

Louis Saha transitioned from the pitch by founding Axis Stars, a digital platform aimed at empowering athletes and entertainers.

As CEO, Saha created a community where members network securely with brands, agents, and financial advisors.

Saha raised £1m in crowdfunding for the venture in 2020.

I love this. I love everything about it. It’s refreshing to me to see athletes make strides of this nature. If you want to see the video I made which blew up somewhat on instagram see below:

Today I leav you with some more American Sports news.

I find it crazy how American sports contracts are public information. It is not possible in any other job, any other sector or any other industry to simply search someones salary and be able to find their past and future contract information in seconds. I would love to know when opening up salary information for all athletes became industry standard.

Either way, moments before the first gameweek of the NFL season yesterday the Dallas Cowboys and their franchise Quarterback Dak Prescott reached an unprecedented new agreement making him the highest paid player in NFL history.

A lot of money was given out in the off-season. The “per annum QB ranking” now looks like this.

It’s amazing to me to think Dak will make more than $1m/week for the next four years fully guaranteed. In Dallas too where there is no state taxes.

Good shit Dak, get your money.

See you next.