From millionaire footballer to penniless, subsidized by the state. The story of Eike Immel it’s one of those sad stories of those who find themselves broke from one day to the next. Former German international, goalkeeper for Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Stuttgart, Immel tells everything to Brand:
“Now I live on 1,136 euros per month in subsidy. Of this sum, 573 euros go towards rent, while I only have 562 left for other expenses. It’s a real battle to make ends meet… Sometimes I only have 2 euros left All the furniture in the apartment was given to me and a friend who runs a local restaurant allows me to eat for free.”
And again: “Money wasn’t a concern for me in the past. I lived life. At times my cell phone bill amounted to 10,000 euros a month. One Christmas I spent more than 26,000 euros on clothes for my new girlfriend. I paid more than a million euros for my house, but at a certain point the bailiffs showed up at my door.”
What happened? Immel reveals of a debt of almost a million euros that he couldn’t pay: “The tax office that I owed them 935,000 euros and I couldn’t pay it. So I did things that any normal person would say weren’t true… I hadn’t thought about the future enough. Managing money is not one of my strong points.”