Ex-Liverpool goalkeeper opens up about his bankruptcy and alcohol problems

Former England and Liverpool goalkeeper David James spoke about how he took his bankruptcy, and also dwelled on the problem with alcohol.

The 51-year-old ex-player made around £20m in his playing career, earning around £50,000 a week during his time at Portsmouth, but was declared bankrupt in May 2014. In November of that year, he auctioned off some of his most prized possessions, including over 100 T-shirts.

There is a well-known old saying that money cannot buy happiness. But the reality is that if you don’t have any of that, then it’s hard… When you see a beautiful watch on someone, you think: “The next time I buy a watch, I’ll buy a better one.”

Once I was sitting in the dressing room at Portsmouth and one of the guys walked by with a pair of jeans that probably cost £400. I reasoned like this: we all go out and buy our best clothes, wake up in the morning, get dressed, go to work in our best clothes, put on our training kit, work out, come back, get dressed, go home. So these best clothes were literally just for walking from home to workout and back. I thought, “Who am I competing with here?” So I went in a completely different way.

Then came bankruptcy. Even though I could spend money, I always helped other people. When you don’t have money, you can’t help other people. And it was more problematic than I couldn’t get something.

I wasn’t a drunk at Watford. I went to Liverpool and my first interaction with the players was ‘Let’s have a drink’ and I thought ‘I have to do this’ to get closer to the guys. Like my smoking, I just kept doing it, — quotes the words of James The Mirror.