Premier League - Villa keeper Friedel declared bankrupt
Aston Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel has been declared bankrupt despite being paid over £40,000-a-week – according to a report in the Daily Mirror.
The ruling was made at Macclesfield county court after Friedel's US football academy ran up debts of close to £5 million.
Friedel set up the 28-acre not-for-profit 'Premier Soccer Academy' in his native Ohio back in 2007.
However, sponsors have since dropped out of the project and trainees have baulked at the £20,000-a-year fee for the Academy that aims to train players for European football.
Lender RBS Citizens then took action in the US and court documents showed that last August Friedel and his company owed nearly £5m.
The academy is in Lorain County, and their website lists more than £250,000 in unpaid property taxes relating to the academy.
Last month, repossession proceedings also began on a £260,000 house owned by the former American international in Ohio.
A spokesperson for the former is Friedel quoted in the Mirror as saying: "This is a technical bankruptcy and it is not anticipated that it will be in place for long as an application for an annulment will be submitted in the next few days.
"Arrangements are in place to deal with the issues which gave rise to the bankruptcy."
Friedel has been an ever present in the Villa team this season, but the 39-year-old is out of contract in the summer.
He signed for Liverpool in 1997 and was at Anfield for three seasons. He then enjoyed eight years at Blackburn before moving on to Villa in 2008.
Comment 174 - 193 of 193
Good luck to them for being paid ridiculous amount of money for kicking a leather ball. All the same it's so nice to see some of those egoistic pampered buffoons crashing back to planet earth and face the daily fear of each letter through the letter box. Welcome to my world fools.
Good luck to them. Might be able to kick a ball but seem to lack in brain cells.
£40k a week is cheapest end of the salary scale in the EPL. Hope he recovers soon
Lawyered
its his business that has gone bust. his personal salary isnt enough to float it. please people read.
owned
Banks are set-up to lose money, this nothing but juicy reading.
In most bankruptcy cases there is usually NOTHING to take because when a person or corporation gets to the insolvency state, anything of value has gone or has been returned. And in this case £5 million owed and a house worth £260K (not including what is owed on the house) the creditors that will be lined-up at the trough will be getting naught.
All this man has to do is take a six month sabbatical and wait for his discharge from bankruptcy to come through, and then he can get on with his life.
It appears most people are envious of footballers and the money they get paid. It is a pity, one game/injury can end the carrier of a footballer and his source of earning. We enjoy washing them play, why then worried about the money willing clubs pay? The man was trying to develop the game in his little way. NOT FOR PROFIT, "CHARITY" in the write-up is not read. PHD syndrome is jealousy, if I don't have talent, haven't got good education to earn good money from employment, then every other person should be in my shoes. It is sickening, in supposed sane society, such feeling should not be expressed, worse to public written in the public domain appear to belittle persons. Grow up, make your legitimate money. Then you know hard work pays.
GET A LIFE HOW CARES A @#$% ABOUT THESE PEOPLE !!!!!!!!!! THERES LOTS OF PEOPLE WITH NO MONEY JOIN THEM HA HA !!!!!!! TERRY FROM LONDON ENGLAND
GOOD I WISH ALL THESE PLAYERS LOST THERE MONEY ! I LOVE TO SEE THEM CLEAN SHOES !! FOR A LIVING !! OVER PAID @#$% !!! BIG GOBS
I have no feelings either way about Brad Friedel and couldn't care less about this story.
i like Brad Friedel nd his fellow U.S. goalie Kasey Keller. Good at their jobs as players but unfortunely when lacking experience, the best intentions can go sour. Best wishes to Brad and i hope he comes out of this okay.
ummm non profit, which means he makes no money. unless he takes a wage of course. however some people seriously need to get a grip and actually read the article they are commenting on. the word DUHHHHHH comes to mind. chelsea.tommy comes to mind for one. explain yourself tommy lol,, i gotta hear this one.
Premiership footballers are fast becoming a laughing stock as there seem to be far to many idiots who just blow their money, so that when they get to retirement age they've very little left. No one respects them anymore either as most consider that looking like a film star and having a trophy wife as being more important than learning their craft and trying to be the best that there can be.
Friedel's situation shows that clubs aren't really looking after players, that they can allow a player to become bankrupt. Unbelievable. One day the Premiership will crash and it may be sooner than we all think. When it does implode it will be spectacular. Maybe this is a wake up call......or maybe the F.A, clubs and players are all to dumb to see the writing on the wall.
My structured remarks and the thumbs up/down seems to show the truth....as does others that have left similar remarks so get ur head out of ur a**es and realise that some footballers want to improve the situation rather than make it worse!!!
KNOW ONE IS WORTH THE MONEY THE MODERN FOOTBALL PLAYER'S ARE PAYED THEY CHEAT THE TAX MAN BY PAYING 2.5% OR THEY BLOW IT, SNORT IT OR USE IT TO PAY FOR SEX. NOT LIKE THE PLAYERS OF BYGONE DAYS WHO JUST DRANK IT OR PUT ON A BET! 0R JUST DONE IT ALL
hes a stupid idiot 160,000 a month and he is bankrupt money management up his @#$% if you ask me, football players are a joke these days i hope the fa gets a grip. if they were paid less it would stop stupid deals going on , on the side cause it is on the side footballers should stick to fooball and save the rest i know he had his reasons but stick to football brad , i hope he @#$% off back off to the us broke
why slate the guy he set up the academy on a non profit basis he didnt expect to make money off the back of it so where is the crime?
I'm sorry but I don't really have much sympathy here. Something is seriously wrong if you can go bankrupt despite earning £40,000 a week, yes that's A WEEK, not a year or even a month - but a week. It's sickening really how blaze an individual can be amount money....and students spend 20 years paying off debts less than that.
For a senior footballer who's been in the game for nearly 20 years and is pushing 40....he really should know better. Brad Friedel of all people. I wouldn't have been surprised if it was a delinquent like Joey Barton, or someone who 'drinks' money like Rooney and many of the younger footballers, but Friedel is abit of a shock - and I'm not even a Villa fan. Geez I must be bored writing this on a friday night lol. Who the hell's going to bail him out?????? ....the villa fans.....I think not. Looks like he's heading for early retirement.
gdafh
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