Eurosport - Fri, 20 Nov 14:09:00 2009
Former Newcastle United striker Obafemi Martins was broke despite earning £75,000 a week, a High Court judge has been told.
Martins was "constantly overdrawn" and regularly blew £40,000 in a weekend before withdrawing another £25,000 on Monday, the court heard.
The 25-year-old is being sued by his former agent, Chris Nathaniel, whose company NVA claims it managed every aspect of his life and gave him cash advances.
NVA say he owes a £284,000 fee plus interest for managing his finances and other areas, and used Nathaniel in what Judge Richard Seymour QC described as "a Jeeves role".
Martins signed the a lucrative £75,000-a-week contract when he joined Newcastle from Internazionale for £10 million in 2006.
Robert Tennink, the lawyer representing NVA, told the High Court in London: "Despite earning these vast sums of money he was constantly overdrawn."
Martins, now of German champions Wolfsburg, owned a multi-million pound mansion in Darras Hall, Northumbria and rented a luxury flat on Newcastle's Quayside. He also had several high-performance cars.
The striker is fighting the claim. He was not in court on Thursday and the hearing is scheduled to last for three days.
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Comment 414 - 433 of 433
Tony's a @#$%!!
Tony's a @#$%!!
i pity you so much but remember when your legs are tired,when you cant run again,it will be hard to come by all this kind of money,be wise,use your money wisely,besides remember that you were raised very poor and very bad for you to have poor mentality
i pity you martins
@Zoso Ouch on your behalf :) Touched a raw nerve, have I? Were you one of the diamond slingers Oba refused to deal with? Surely one doesn't have to be an agent to have an opinion, eh Mr. Zoso. Some intelligent comments from you might actually give us an insight into your mindset or opinion - if you have one. Perhaps you're only reflecting your judgemental nature - of course this is fair enough. Let's agree to disagree. As for hurling insults at me by calling me an '@#$%' - well, I daresay it takes one to know one, eh? If only you could type it right. God help you. I rest my case.
Hope all goes well for Martins and he sees the need to surround himself with astute and well meaning people of integrity and not some rag-tag publicity seeking fly-by agency, who makes their clients so paranoid they don't wanna have to leave any money lying around. Oh well, they got fired in the end.
@Zoso, have a fantastic week ahead - I know I will. And oh, hope you and NVA find another club to buy soon. (Ends with a wide beam of a smile,jumps and does a heel click!)
Just hord from a Nigerian Mate his Agent is a shakydan Banza Umoomoo banka wark that wern oot
tony is obviously martins agent - an arsehol e.
why do we{as an nufc fan} pay these mercinaries so muchy money. the people who run our beloved club dont know there elbows from there a rsoholes.
people who thinks obafemi is broke -- WERE NSE WERE YIN
As his expenditure exceeded his income he should have felt at home at Sid James Park.
Mad Medic, you are so right.
Did i say something wrong? *sniggers* gosh i got 'reported' as i said the truth... there are BUCKET LOADS of racist comments besides mine but as i made it against 'whites' i was reported..
Shame though... lol
Why is Martins being branded an idiot for wanting his money every week? Did he spend it or invest it somewhere else? And if he told them he needed it because he was "skint" (so they say), that doesn't make it the true reason. Would you leave all your wages accumulating every week with some fly-by-night outfit (note: NVA is not a licensed bank)? Another charachter assassination by the media.
Uhm is this true and which source is this news from because it is embarrassing if it is not true.
What a complete and utter K N O B !!
Personally I don't believe anything said by players agents. They are leeches. If he was drawing all of his 75K a week and stashing it away somewhere else good on him. Better that than leave it with his so called financial advisers. He can't play football but he's obviously not daft.
Lie! Lie! Even if na so e dey draw the money nko? What if e dey overdraw? How d agent go claim say e no sabi say all this chaddah dey comot..? Trust Naija boy sha,una forget say im mama die?? e do owambe for Ebutte Metta na,u sabi how many people wear ankara?? Na money d agent just wan chop o jare.
Actually he has my sympathy......75,000 a week is not that much to live on!! LOL.xx
Interesting story. May seem a lost cause but I'd like to come to Martins' defence here. This debacle of being sued and all, has been going on since February of this year, ever since the relationship between NVA management and Martins turned sour.
I'm not one to judge - but wasn't it the NVA folks the ones touting themselves as buyers of Newcastle United earlier this year in yet another publicity hungry rave? Questionable if you asked me.
By the way, NVA was supposed to manage his affairs and broker deals on his (Martins) behalf - apparently. So then, were his affairs managed properly? Questionable if you asked me. It's a different thing altogether if the relationship turned sour and both parties went their ways - a totally different kettle of fish demanding to get paid for services not rendered - or indeed lacklustre type service.
I would have thought an astute agency would have put things in order properly and not have to resort to mudslinging by way of a media blitz and court battles to recover alleged monies owed. Surely a 'Super' Agency like NVA would have well defined and stipulated modes of payment - eh? Remember something called invoice, pay-by-dates?
Why did NVA get fired then, eh? A little bird told me they were more interested in introducing diamonds merchants to the poor lad (all for a back end fee of course!)
Has anyone been on the NVA management website? Parading footballers you don't even manage on the website does not necesarily mean you know how to manage a footballer. Yet another little bird told me; the CEO is a club promoter and DJ by trade, thus his venture into rubbing shoulders with stars - laudable, I must admit!
It'll be interesting to see what contract was signed or agreed with the footballer in question before all of this brouhaha.
The tenure of the contract, apparently was for 2 seasons/years but NVA got fired before the first season ended. Questionable really. Perhaps Martins is not as stupi
40k and 25k overdraft not 1 or 2 weekends but every weekend of his stay in england .yet the man that manage every ASPECT OF HIS LIFE knows notting on what is coming .ehm irony
This guy has all his money stashed outside Europe , i noticed he lives a quite and vague life , i think he is getting his money as far away from the British Govt. and greedy British banks as possible , the last time I checked he was among the richest people in his home country , having more than 1 billion worth of local currency in intercontinental bank and oceanic bank which was disclosed by the financial regulatory agency in his country. I don't think he is broke ,he is just going to do the cry baby and claim he is broke , Martins please spare us all the film tricks.
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