From rags-to-riches-to-rags
The former Liverpool winger splashed out on a fleet of supercars, homes, five-star holidays abroad and once paid a £25 000 bar bill on a lads’ break in Las Vegas.
But the 39-year-old, who describes himself as “financially illiterate”, also blew a fortune on bad investments and fell prey to hangers-on he says targeted him. And he went on to lose three houses and more money through a divorce and bankruptcy,
He said: “In all honesty, I could have been a billionaire and still f***ed it up.
“I have made so many mistakes but I did not know how to deal with things and would not think of the consequences of my actions.
“I have been labelled a bad-boy but, in reality, I was just an insecure kid who did not know what he was doing.”
Pennant revealed he was diagnosed last year with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and PTSD linked to childhood trauma.
His ADHD meant he once forgot he owned a house in Cheshire after moving from Liverpool to Spanish side Real Zaragoza — although he was still paying the interest-only mortgage on it.
He bought the six-bedroom home in Hale for £1.2million on the advice of a fixer. When he moved to Spain he left it empty — but it was later occupied by a drugs gang who caused a fire at the property.
Pennant — now a footie pundit on talkSPORT — admitted: “I bought houses but never spoke to an estate agent and had mortgages that I did not know about.
“I took bad advice from bad people and just lived day to day.
“There was a fixer who arranged things for me — but now I realise he swindled me out of money.
“He advised me to buy the house in Hale for well over the odds and then to do a load of building work on it. But I wasn’t paying the builders, I was paying him.
“That sort of thing happened to me wherever I went.
“I would also go out and spend money on tables at nightclubs and not worry about it.
“We did two trips to Las Vegas; and on the first one I picked up a bar bill of $30,000 (£25,000) for my mates — I did not even know what was being ordered.
“I invested in horses and properties and have lost all the money.
“I dread to think what the total would be but I guess it would be more than £10million.”
Years of financial misjudgments and mistakes eventually caught up with the ex-Premier League star.
The tipping point came when the taxman hit him with a bill for more than £1million in 2018.
He was declared bankrupt at the start of this year with debts of more than £1million.
Pennant, who starred on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018, said: “The bankruptcy did not happen overnight. It came from years of bad decisions and ignoring things.
“We disputed the tax bill and I still do not know what it is for.
“But that is the thing that led to the bankruptcy more than anything else. I had no idea what I was earning and what was coming out of my account. — The Sun.
