‘Because of brokers and household points’: Brazil soccer legend Roberto Carlos reveals stunning lack of 99% of his $180m profession earnings
Roberto Carlos made a fortune throughout a 24-year profession spent profitable virtually every part there was to win, however the former Brazil and Real Madrid star says virtually all of it’s now gone. The 53-year-old has revealed that he misplaced 99% of what he earned from soccer, whereas giving solely a restricted clarification of how his funds unravelled and pointing as a substitute to critical household issues, brokers and folks he trusted.
Carlos says folks he trusted emptied his checking account
Speaking on the Portugal Football Summit in Lisbon, Carlos opened up about his funds whereas discussing the significance of planning for all times after soccer and defending a participant’s picture past the pitch.“I had issues with individuals who emptied my checking account. I misplaced 99% of every part I earned from soccer,” Carlos stated.He didn’t present a full breakdown of what occurred to his cash, however stated brokers and household points had been central to the monetary issues he skilled.“Because of brokers and household points, I misplaced 99% of every part I had earned in soccer,” he added.Carlos additionally described the second he realised the dimensions of what had occurred, saying that it got here with virtually no warning.“I had a really critical household drawback. One Thursday, I went to mattress at midnight and the following day, I acquired a pile of paperwork I knew nothing about. That’s after I realised I had misplaced my whole historical past.”Carlos didn’t determine the members of the family concerned or clarify exactly what the paperwork contained, so his feedback don’t set up that his kids, wives or different family had been personally chargeable for the losses.His private life has been unusually massive by any measure, with Carlos having 11 kids, relationships with seven ladies and two marriages, however he has not publicly attributed the monetary issues to any explicit member of his household.Reports from Globo have additionally pointed to issues involving brokers and advisers, though Carlos himself has remained comparatively obscure in regards to the exact circumstances.The numbers concerned make the admission notably placing. Estimates put Carlos’ profession soccer earnings at round $180 million, that means that dropping 99% would quantity to greater than $178 million and depart roughly $1.8 million from that unique sum.Celebrity Net Worth, in the meantime, at present estimates his web price at $5 million, though that determine is separate from Carlos’ personal account of dropping 99% of his soccer earnings.
His taking part in profession generated huge wealth
Carlos had the type of profession that made vital wealth doable, notably throughout the peak years of European soccer’s spending growth.He spent 11 seasons with Real Madrid, making 527 appearances and profitable 4 La Liga titles and three Champions League trophies. He performed alongside Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo and David Beckham throughout the membership’s well-known Galácticos period and have become one of many defining left-backs of his era.When Carlos renewed his Real Madrid contract in 2000, he reportedly acquired an $8.5 million signing bonus alongside a $5.1 million annual wage, with the membership additionally protecting his house lease and 6 journeys to São Paulo every season.After leaving Madrid in 2007, he joined Fenerbahçe, the place he earned €4.2 million web per season.Even later in his profession, the cash remained substantial. In 2011, on the age of 37, Russian membership Anzhi Makhachkala provided him a contract price €6 million per yr, then roughly $9 million.Carlos ultimately continued taking part in into his 40s, making his ultimate appearances as a player-manager in India in 2015.Across these years, his soccer profession is estimated to have generated round $180 million, a determine that displays each his membership contracts and the extraordinary business worth hooked up to one of many sport’s most recognisable defenders.
The profession behind the fortune was extraordinary
Carlos’ monetary story is troublesome to separate from simply how profitable he was as a footballer.For Brazil, he performed at three World Cups and helped the nation win the 2002 match after reaching the ultimate 4 years earlier. He made greater than 120 appearances for the nationwide group and spent a lot of his peak being thought to be not solely the international stage’s main left-back however the most effective gamers in soccer.He got here near main particular person honours as nicely. Carlos completed second to Ronaldo within the 1997 FIFA World Player of the Year voting and once more completed second to his Brazilian teammate for the 2002 Ballon d’Or after profitable the World Cup.His most well-known second might have are available in 1997, when his free-kick towards France gave the impression to be travelling a number of yards vast earlier than swerving dramatically again in direction of the purpose. The strike grew to become considered one of soccer’s most well-known targets and was subsequently studied by physicists due to the weird trajectory.Away from the pitch, Carlos says he had at all times understood that his taking part in profession would ultimately finish and that he wanted one thing to fall again on.“I made errors, and due to this fact, I ask youthful gamers to not do the identical. I at all times considered future plans after my taking part in profession,” he stated.Carlos stated he had already obtained his sporting director’s licence by the point he determined to go away soccer and was working with a number of manufacturers, permitting him to construct a second profession round his identify and repute.“It’s about constructing a historical past as a participant and leveraging your picture,” he stated. “When I made a decision to go away soccer, I already had my sporting director’s licence and was working with many manufacturers.”
Former Brazil participant Roberto Carlos arrives to attend the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup on the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Carlos now works in soccer and continues to function as a model ambassador, together with in his function with Real Madrid as an envoy for Asia and Oceania and director of institutional relations.His warning to youthful gamers is consequently much less in regards to the measurement of a footballer’s wage than what occurs round it. Carlos earned tens of millions at a number of the greatest golf equipment within the international stage, constructed a profession that produced World Cup and Champions League titles, and have become one of the recognisable gamers of his period.Yet he says that folks he trusted, brokers and critical household issues finally left him with solely a fraction of what that profession had generated.Carlos has not offered all the main points behind the losses, however his message on the Portugal Football Summit was clear sufficient: incomes a fortune throughout a soccer profession is one factor, defending it when different folks have entry to your funds is one other.
