By Manyehlisa Lehohla
During his playing days, says South African football legend Quinton Fortune, he was under the illusion his career would have no finite point.
So entrenched was this idea of an infinite career that the decorated Fortune – who made a career-defining move in the late 90's to Manchester United – never imagined life after the game.
The Cape Town-born Fortune, an English Premiership title winner with United in the 2002-03 season, says the game took over his life to an extent that even the paramount aspects of his finances took a backseat.
For the former Bafana Bafana international, whose playing career ended in 2010, the routine of training and a balanced diet sufficed.
“When I was playing, I never thought about things like, ‘this will be my plan after football’. When you are playing, you never think about the end. You think you are going to play forever. That was my attitude because football was what I knew,” said Fortune, who has worked in Mexico for the past two years. It’s probably the same for the majority of footballers.
“Of course, with hindsight, one can ask themselves... Why did I not think about the next step? The answer is that I was into training, coming home, eating right and resting… The following day again, just to be ready for Saturday. Then boom, one day it’s all over.”
Fortune, now an assistant coach at Mexican club Tigres UANL, laments not having had a trusted aide to advise him financially earlier on in his career. He intimated that only a few players surround themselves with the right people to help them look after their finances during and after playing. The former Atletico Madrid player described his process as “trial and error”, which led to a brush with the dark side of the football business.
You need somebody you can trust. If you can find the right people to advise you on money matters.
“You need somebody you can trust. There are a lot of people around football players, so you can never be sure they are the right ones. If you can find the right people to advise you on money matters and take care of it, then you are very fortunate. But not many footballers have that,” said Fortune.
He told of his experience of handling money and going head-to-head against a former agent in court.
“Becoming financially savvy was trial and error. I went through the whole thing of the agent taking me to court. For what, I still don't know. I was fortunate to come out on the other side. Not many players come out on the other side,” said Fortune. “I had proof of my whereabouts. And the agent tried to convince the court otherwise. I was young. I trusted this person with everything because he gave me the opportunity to play in England.
“Where we come from, when someone gives you an opportunity, you are grateful. You reward that person for what they have done. This person abused that. I was fortunate to get through and come out on the other side of that process.”
Fortune also learnt that making money can be a gift and a curse. While he intentionally used the game to change the lives of his family, like moving his parents from Kewtown on the Cape Flats to the suburb of Pinelands, the former midfielder also indulged in a few excesses. One such was buying four luxury cars – a decision he regrets on the one hand, but on the other admits it taught him an important lesson.
“When I look back, I believe I had to go through certain things as part of the learning experience. I came from nothing, so when I got money, I went a little bit crazy. I bought my parents loads of stuff. Importantly, I also bought my parents a house. There is a place called Pinelands. It’s night and day from Kewtown. Two different worlds,” said Fortune. “For my dad to have a spacious garden was special because we lived on the seventh floor before. It was a move away from some of the social ills of our old neighbourhood. It was a blessing.
“One thing I also remember doing was buying four cars... Now I ask myself, ‘Why did I have four cars?’. I realised I was in a different space then. I wish I had somebody to tell me, ‘Hey, you don't need four cars because you can only drive one’. As I said, you need good people around you to give sound advice. It’s so important.”
While the former Bafana Bafana international has managed to carve out a career after football and has gotten a grip on his finances, it has not been the case for some who have played in the English Premiership.
A Bleacher Report article in 2013 stated that three out of every five players in the Premiership file for bankruptcy. When asked why this is the case, Fortune said there were a couple of reasons why many footballers fall on hard times.
“I can only think about my situation. When you play football, you spend most of your time away from your family. When the day comes that you stop playing, you have to get to know the person all over again,” said Fortune. “Some players don’t know what to do with themselves. Some resort to gambling and drinking, or they get bad advice. So many footballers also fall into the trap of trying to live the same lifestyle in retirement as they did while playing.
“The responsibility rests on the players to find a trustworthy advisor to help prepare them for that rainy day, which can also be caused by injury or when retirement comes... Like taking a percentage of your money and putting it away in a pension fund. Also, the clubs should insist on taking a portion or half of the player’s salary and putting it away for them. They can access it once they are 40 or 50. It should be law.”
Fortune, now 47, says that even from his Monterrey, Mexico base, he poses questions to the right people to ensure his finances are intact. It has also helped that, over time, he began to understand himself.
“It’s by God’s grace. I started to learn more about myself. I surrounded myself with good people. I have taken responsibility for learning about investments. Now that I am a father, I can’t think about only myself. I put away what I earn for my kids so that they can be in a better position to take care of themselves and, hopefully, they can also grow that investment as well,” said Fortune.
While Fortune has taken charge of ensuring the financial security of himself and his family, his story is a cautionary tale of footballers needing to be good stewards of their money, because when the curtain closes on their careers, they will want to be in a position to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Manyehlisa Lehohla is the founder and curator of The Big Tip Off. (https://thebigtipoff.co.za).
EDITOR’S NOTE: I am delighted to announce that Lehohla will be sharing further sport and money columns with Business Report. Sports is something that South African love and I hope our readers love reading these columns as much as I did. – Philippa Larkin, executive editor of Business Report
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