Roberto Carlos: Lost 99 percent of his football income

Brazilian soccer icon Roberto Carlos says he lost 99 percent of his earnings as a professional soccer player. “My account is at zero,” the former left-back is quoted as saying by the Brazilian television station Globo Esporter.

Carlos made the statements at the Portugal Football Summit, an international conference organized by the Portuguese Football Association, which took place last weekend.

“Papers I didn’t even know about”

Carlos blames his former advisor and family problems for his financial problems. »I had problems with people cleaning out my account. Because of these problems, I lost 99 percent of everything I earned in football." He made mistakes, said the 53-year-old and appealed to younger people not to make the same mistakes.

Carlos said that his problems came on very suddenly. "I went to sleep at midnight on a Thursday and received a pile of papers on Friday that I didn't even know existed," he said. Carlos did not say exactly when these events took place. Only that with the help of a friend he managed to overcome his family and financial problems.

According to the English newspaper "The Sun", Carlos is said to have earned around 155 million euros in his career. He played for Real Madrid from 1996 to 2007 and, according to the football database transfermarkt.de, played 527 games in which he scored 69 goals and 117 assists. Together with other stars such as Zinédine Zidane, Luís Figo, the Brazilian Ronaldo and David Beckham, Carlos was part of the star ensemble that was called "Los Galacticos", the Galactic Ones.

With the Brazilian national team, Carlos became world champion in 2002 at the tournament in South Korea and Japan. Only three players have played more international matches for the record world champions. The 1.68 meter man also became famous for his immense shooting power and free kick goals from long distances.